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1. Exploitation of Phosphoinositides by the Intracellular Pathogen, Legionella pneumophila

   https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89158  

   Pike, Colleen; Noll, Rebecca; Neunuebel, Ramona. (October 2019, Intech)

   Manipulation of host phosphoinositide lipids has emerged as a key survival strategy utilized by pathogenic bacteria to establish and maintain a replication-permissive compartment within eukaryotic host cells. The human pathogen, Legionella pneumophila, infects and proliferates within the lung’s innate immune cells causing severe pneumonia termed Legionnaires’ disease. This pathogen has evolved strategies to manipulate specific host components to construct its intracellular niche termed the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV). Paramount to LCV biogenesis and maintenance is the spatiotemporal regulation of phosphoinositides, important eukaryotic lipids involved in cell signaling and membrane trafficking. Through a specialized secretion system, L. pneumophila translocates multiple proteins that target phosphoinositides in order to escape endolysosomal degradation. By specifically binding phosphoinositides, these proteins can anchor to the cytosolic surface of the LCV or onto specific host membrane compartments, to ultimately stimulate or inhibit encounters with host organelles. Here, we describe the bacterial proteins involved in binding and/or altering host phosphoinositide dynamics to support intracellular survival of L. pneumophila. 

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2. A Multi-Pronged approach to Reducing Legionella Risks

   Hamilton, Kerry (November 2023, American Public Health Association Annual Meeting)

   Session co-presenters: Weir M, Mitchell J, Fung D, Ross K, Hannapel L, Edens C. Session: Legionella in the Built Environment: Emerging research, practices, and policies. American Public Health Association (APHA), Atlanta, GA, November 12, 2023. 

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3. Particle-associated and free-living Legionella spp. in drinking water

   Angert, D M; Dowdell, K S; Nguyen, L; Park, C; Brown, J; Russell, C; Bautista, M; Hegarty, B; Cambronne, E D; Kirisits, M J (July 2025, Water research)
4. Mechanistic modeling of Legionella in building water systems: A critical review on the essential factors

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179169  

   Ortiz, Catalina; Hatam, Fatemeh; Quon, Hunter; Hamilton, Kerry A; Prévost, Michèle (April 2025, Science of The Total Environment)
5. Synergy between microwave radiation and silver for inactivation of Legionella pneumophila

   Saleh, N. B.; Ayres, C.; Lawler, D. F.; Kirisits, M. J. (July 2020, 1st Virtual Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research)

   Legionella pneumophila is an opportunistic human pathogen that can cause a severe and deadly form of pneumonia called Legionnaires’ disease. Over the past decade, the number of reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease has quadrupled in the U.S., with 8,000-18,000 hospitalizations per year at a yearly incidence rate of 1.7/100,000. Within the water sector, this public health risk is exacerbated by the proliferation of L. pneumophila in complex biological matrices such as biofilms and within free-living amoebae. Traditional disinfection technologies fail to effectively mitigate this emerging pathogen issue, necessitating development of point-of-use (POU) technologies with high inactivation efficacy. We aim to harness microwave (MW) radiation and take advantage of its synergy with ion-mediated toxicity to effectively inactivate L. pneumophila. In this study, planktonic L. pneumophila cells have been exposed to ionic and nano-particulate silver. While neither treatment alone is effective over a short exposure period, a combined treatment of silver with MW radiation successfully achieves 3-4 log removal within 6 min of irradiation, as shown in Figure 1. Enhanced toxicity was observed when L. pneumophila was pre-exposed to either treatment (i.e., MW heating or silver exposure) prior to exposure to the other; these results suggest that silver ion transport within the cells is facilitated by heat treatment. Data presented here serve as the proof-of-concept toward the development of a L pneumophila inactivation device that harnesses MW radiation and can potentially mitigate this public health risk, even if the cells are protected by amoebae or biofilms. 

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