Listeria future or investigational therapies

Modern Relevance/Future Research
Listeriosis is an opportunistic pathogen: it is most prevalent in the elderly, pregnant mothers, and AIDS patients. With improved healthcare leading to a growing elderly population and extended life expectancies for AIDS patients, physicians are more likely to encounter this otherwise rare infection (only 0.7 per 100,000 healthy people are infected with virulent Listeria each year). Better understanding the cell biology of Listeria infections, including relevant virulence factors, may help us better treat Listeriosis and other intracytoplasmic parasites. Researchers are now investigating the use of Listeria as a cancer vaccine, taking advantage of its "ability induce potent innate and adaptive immunity."

Future treatment options
Intralytix has created a virus spray with bacteriophages to be applied to food for the prevention of Listeriosis by killing six strains of L. monocytogenes bacterium. EBI Food Safety has created and put a similar product on the market, LISTEX™ P100. LISTEX™ P100 prevents Listerios in food by using bacteriophages for killing Listeria.