What causes death and disability in bacterial meningitis?
Primary supervisor: Nicholas Hunt Bacterial meningitis kills over 150,000 people every year and many more suffer neurological consequences that persist after the infection is eliminated. It is important to study the pathogenesis of this disease in order to discover new ways of reducing both the death toll and the incidence of the long-term problems in survivors. We are applying our extensive experience in uncovering the immunopathological mechanisms in cerebral malaria to the problem of bacterial meningitis. We have established a mouse model of bacterial meningitis and our preliminary results suggest that certain cytokines play an important role in determining whether mice with bacterial meningitis succumb to the disease. These cytokines also may be important in the development of behavioural defects in survivors. The kynurenine pathway also seems to be relevant in this condition. Activation of this pathway is observed in a number of other central nervous system disorders, including ce
