Infection of the central nervous system (CNS) is a severe and frequently fatal event during the course of many diseases caused by microbes with predominantly intracellular life cycles. Examples of these include the facultative intracellular bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Brucella and Salmonella spp. and obligate intracellular microbes of the Rickettsiaceae family and Tropheryma whipplei. Unfortunately, the mechanisms used by intracellular bacterial pathogens to enter the CNS are less well known than those used by bacterial pathogens with an extracellular life cycle. The goal of this review is to elaborate on the means by which intracellular bacterial pathogens establish infection within the CNS. This review encompasses the clinical and pathological findings that pertain to the CNS infection in humans and includes experimental data from animal models that illuminate how these microbes enter the CNS. Recent experimental data showing that L. monocytogenes can invade the CNS by more than one mechanism make it a useful model for discussing the various routes for neuroinvasion used by intracellular bacterial pathogens.

中文翻译：

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细胞内细菌侵入中枢神经系统。


在由主要细胞内生命周期的微生物引起的许多疾病过程中，中枢神经系统（CNS）感染是一种严重且常常致命的事件。这些例子包括兼性胞内细菌单核细胞增生李斯特氏菌、结核分枝杆菌、布鲁氏菌和沙门氏菌。以及立克次体科和 Tropheryma Whipplei 的专性细胞内微生物。不幸的是，与细胞外生命周期的细菌病原体相比，细胞内细菌病原体进入中枢神经系统的机制不太为人所知。本综述的目的是详细阐述细胞内细菌病原体在中枢神经系统内建立感染的方式。这篇综述涵盖了与人类中枢神经系统感染有关的临床和病理学发现，并包括来自动物模型的实验数据，这些数据阐明了这些微生物如何进入中枢神经系统。最近的实验数据表明，单核细胞增生李斯特菌可以通过多种机制侵入中枢神经系统，这使其成为讨论细胞内细菌病原体使用的各种神经侵入途径的有用模型。