Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established a method to study the potentially life-threatening meningitis caused by Salmonella in mice. Bacterial meningitis occurs in a bacterial infection of the central nervous system (CNS), causing serious illness, potentially life-threatening, and difficult to diagnose and treat. Patients who often survive suffer permanent brain damage. Salmonella typhimurium is one of the most common causes of food poisoning in the United States and usually causes self-limiting gastrointestinal (GI) infections. However, for people with a weak immune response, Salmonella typhimurium can cause serious systemic infections, which can spread through the blood to other organs. In some cases, the bacteria spread to the central nervous system and cause meningitis. High-risk groups include young and old, patients with advanced HIV/AIDS, and sickle cell disease. Salmonella meningitis is rare in the world. It is currently one of the most common bacterial meningitis in parts of Africa with a high mortality rate. Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
IH uses Salmonella oral infections to mimic food poisoning. They found that Salmonella migrated from the gastrointestinal tract to the blood and then to the brain, causing meningitis. The damage observed in the brains of Salmonella-infected mice is similar to that observed in human meningitis, providing a new model for studying human diseases.
Collaborators include Salmonella experts, neuroimmunologists, and biologists at the Rocky Mountain Institute at the University of Colorado NIAID. They plan to use this model to determine how Salmonella typhimurium infects and damages immune cells in the brain. We will also use this model to study possible treatment options to prevent Salmonella from invading the central nervous system or reduce meningitis damage.