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Published on: May 12, 2023
Adjuvant glycerol is not beneficial in experimental pneumococcal meningitis
Cornelia Blaser1, Matthias Klein, Denis Grandgirard
1Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3010 Bern, Switzerland.
Insights
Adjunctive glycerol did not improve outcomes in infant rat or adult mouse models of pneumococcal meningitis. Despite a late increase in matrix metalloproteinase-9, glycerol did not reduce brain damage or hearing loss.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Infectious Diseases
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Bacterial meningitis poses significant mortality and morbidity risks in children.
- Previous studies suggested potential benefits of glycerol in Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis and a trend in pneumococcal meningitis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the efficacy of glycerol as an adjunctive treatment in experimental pneumococcal meningitis models.
- To assess the impact of glycerol on neurological sequelae, brain damage, hearing loss, and inflammatory markers.
Main Methods:
- Infant rats and adult mice with pneumococcal meningitis were treated with ceftriaxone plus either glycerol or placebo.
- Evaluated clinical outcomes, histopathological brain damage, hearing impairment, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 levels.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in clinical or histopathological outcomes were observed between glycerol and placebo groups.
- While matrix metalloproteinase-9 levels were similar at 24 hours, glycerol showed a trend towards lower levels at 40 hours, but this did not correlate with improved brain pathology.
Conclusions:
- Adjunctive glycerol did not demonstrate therapeutic benefit in these preclinical models of pneumococcal meningitis.
- Further research is needed to explore glycerol's role in managing bacterial meningitis and its complications.
Background:
Bacterial meningitis in children causes high rates of mortality and morbidity. In a recent clinical trial, oral glycerol significantly reduced severe neurological sequelae in paediatric meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b, and a tendency towards a benefit of adjunctive glycerol was seen in pneumococcal meningitis.
Methods:
Here we examined the effects of glycerol in pneumococcal meningitis of infant rats and adult mice. All animals received ceftriaxone, and glycerol or placebo. Brain damage, hearing loss, and inflammatory parameters were assessed.
Results:
Clinically and by histopathology, animals treated with glycerol or placebo did not differ. While both groups showed equally high levels of matrix metalloproteinase-9 at 24 h after infection, a significant difference in favour of glycerol was observed at 40 h after infection. However, this difference in matrix metalloproteinase-9 in late disease did not result in an improvement of histopathologic parameters.
Conclusion:
No benefit of adjunctive glycerol was found in these models of pneumococcal meningitis.
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