How does Legionella pneumophila exit the host cell?
In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in unraveling the elegant mechanisms by which intracellular pathogens invade host cells and establish intracellular infections. By contrast, our knowledge of the mechanisms of host cell cytolysis and the egress of intracellular pathogens is still in its infancy. Temporal pore-formation-mediated lysis of the host and exit by Legionella pneumophila and Leishmania could provide a new model of egress for other intracellular pathogens, many of which exhibit pore-forming or cytolysin activityResearch suggests that following intracellular replication, Legionella pneumophila exits host macrophages by pore-formation mediated toxicity, involving the insertion of a pore in both the phagosomal membrane and the host cell plasma membrane.
