Brains, bacteria and behaviors: the role of interferon-gamma in the pathogenesis of pneumococcal meningitis

Abstract

Pneumococcal meningitis is a highly lethal form of bacterial meningitis that occurs following brain infection by the Gram-positive cocci Streptococcus pneumoniae. Not only does it cause acute mortality, but pneumococcal meningitis also accounts for the highest proportion of survivors living with neurological sequelae, including behavioral disorders, cognitive deficits, hearing loss, motor impairment and epilepsy. More than 90 distinct pneumococcal serotypes have been identified worldwide based on their capsular compositions and serological responses. Serotype replacement continually poses great challenge to costly vaccination programs in developed countries (Koelman et al., 2020), this has t..