Possible links between listeria, iron and cancer

1. Erwan Godefroy

2. Links between iron and Cancer

3. Listeria Monocytogenes
• A dangerous Bacteria found in vegetables, meat, ….
• Mostly found among pregnant women
• …and what is the link with iron ?

4. Iron and Listeria
1. Two much iron can reduce the monocyte capabilities. Consequently, host
are more vulnerable to microorganisms
2. Listeria can extract Iron from Ferritin
3. Some experiments with mice shows a correlation between iron
availability and Listeria growth.
4. Pregnant women are more vulnerable ( 20 times) : perhaps because of
the great iron availability ?
… and what is the link with cancer ?

5. Listeria and cancer
1. Promoting Cancer
1. Direct interaction promotes tumor growth by activating TLR receptors
2. Increases production of nitric oxide
2. Healing cancer
1. Listeria can help fighting cancer :
good tumor antigen vector : invokes suitable immune response

6. references
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1496163/pdf/bmjcred00594-
0018.pdf
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/67/9/4346.short
http://jb.asm.org/content/92/3/536.abstract
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=recruiting-a-dangerous-
foe