During December 2008 to January 2009, two persons contracted Legionnaires’ disease in a newly built block of flats in a suburb of Copenhagen in Denmark. Polymerase chain reaction and culture was used to diagnose Legionnaires’ disease in this cluster. Isolates from both patients tested positive for Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 subgroup Philadelphia sequence type 1 and the same strain was d...

Legionnaires' disease was diagnosed in three mineworkers at a colliery. Investigation of water samples from various sites at the colliery did not discover a source of the infection. Results of serological surveys undertaken on the workmates of the patients and other miners showed only one additional positive Legionella indirect fluorescent antibody test. There was, therefore, no justification f...

We have previously identified the Legionella 19-kDa peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein (PAL) as a species-common immunodominant antigen. We describe here for the first time the excretion and detection of the PAL antigen in infected urine specimens, which is useful for the diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease. Rabbit anti-PAL immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody was produced by immunization with the ...

Legionella is the causative agent for Legionnaires' disease (LD) and is responsible for several large outbreaks in the world. More than 90% of LD cases are caused by Legionella pneumophila, and studies on the origin and transmission routes of this pathogen rely on adequate molecular characterization of isolates. Current typing of L. pneumophila mainly depends on sequence-based typing (SBT). How...

introduction: l.pneumophila has been known as a facultative intracellular bacterium which could proliferate within mammalian macrophages and a wide spectrum of free-living protozoa such as a. castellianii. its pathgenicity for both host cell types could be mostly dependent on the intracellular living conditions. materials and methods: l. pneumophila-infected acanthamoeba were examined by a flou...

Legionella pneumophila is a facultative intracellular human pathogen and the etiological agent of severe pneumonia known as Legionnaires' disease. Its virulence depends on protein secretion systems, in particular, the Dot/Icm type IV secretion system (T4SS), which is essential to establish a replication-permissive vacuole in macrophages. The analysis of the role of these systems and their subst...

Finding novel and effective antibiotics for treatment of Legionella disease is a challenging field. Treatment with antibiotics usually cures Legionella infection; however, if the resultant disease is not timely recognized and treated properly, it leads to poor prognosis and high case fatality rate. Legionella pneumophila DrrA protein (Defects in Rab1 recruitment protein A)/also known as SidM af...

AIMS An evaluation was made of the prevalence of Legionella species in hot water distribution systems in the city of Bologna (Italy) and their possible association with bacterial contamination (total counts and Pseudomonadaceae) and the chemical characteristics of the water (pH, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn and Total Organic Carbon, TOC). METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 137 hot water samples were an...

Legionella pneumophila is naturally found in fresh water were the bacteria parasitize within protozoa. It also survives planctonically in water or biofilms. Upon aerosol formation via man-made water systems, L. pneumophila can enter the human lung and cause a severe form of pneumonia, called Legionnaires' disease. The pathogenesis of Legionnaires' disease is largely due to the ability of L. pne...

Here, we report the draft genome sequence of the Legionella pneumophila Nagoya-1 strain, serogroup 4, which was isolated from a clinical sample from a patient with legionellosis. Several virulence-associated genes, including those encoding the type IV (Dot/Icm) secretion system and effector proteins, were highly conserved.