Vacunas basadas en Listeria monocytogenes

Abstract

Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen with an increasing incidence in the last years. It’s able to cause an infection, called listeriosis, which in people with a special immunological situation causes severe damage like encephalitis, meningitis, miscarriage or serious neurological effects in newborns. With this work it is shown the need of taking actions, finding incidences far above the national average in two communities in Northern Spain. Because of this, we used several vaccines based on peptides of L. monocytogenes in different preclinical studies. Although dendritic vaccines are safe and give high levels of protection, its clinical use is difficult and expensive. Finally, we used nanovaccines. These novel vaccines, in combination with adjuvants, provide high levels of protection against the disease, both in individuals at low risk and high risk of getting the disease, being an optimal alternative for prevention.