Prevent Meningitis in Newborns With New Blood-Brain Barrier Model

A new model of the blood-brain barrier has been developed by researchers in Israel and Italy. This discovery may help to conduct various studies that find ways to prevent meningitis in newborns. The entire research has been published in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. They further developed a platform called organs-on-a-chip—invented during the 2000s—to construct the model. These devices, which are modeled after microchips, contain tiny channels lined with living human organ cells and others with human blood vessel cells.

In this case, the researchers grew human neuronal and glial cells within the chip, atop cells from human vasculature, the latter separated from the other cell types by a membrane, as they are in humans and other animals (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Insight on Bacterial Newborn Meningitis Using a Neurovascular-Unit-on-a-Chip

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They then tested the chips by infecting each with one of several meningitis-causing strains of E. coli that infect newborns. They had also isolated these strains from cases of newborn meningitis, an infection that cannot be prevented by the standard vaccination against meningitis. The meningitis strains caused the neurons growing in the chips to degenerate, and ultimately, to die.

Developing the Organ-On-A-Chip Hastens Discovery of Drugs for Treating Newborn Meningitis

Newborn meningitis infects around 1% of all newborns, with a mortality rate of about 50% in developing countries, and 8-12.5% in industrialized countries. Those who recover are prone to developing neurodegenerative disease (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Acute bacterial meningitis in infants and children

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However, between 60 and 90 % of experimental drugs that work when tested for safety and efficacy in animals fail when tested in humans, which is not surprising since animal models are rough approximations of human physiology, at best.

Testing drugs on organs-on-a-chip will be far more accurate at predicting efficacy and safety in humans, said Maoz. It will also be much quicker and less expensive than testing on animals, providing answers in hours rather than weeks, months, or even years.

The organ-on-a-chip can also be used to determine how other pathologies affect the blood-brain barrier. Researchers are currently investigating how Parkinsons disease and certain drugs such as methamphetamine affect (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Neuronal Damage and Neuroinflammation, a Bridge Between Bacterial Meningitis and Neurodegenerative Diseases

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They have found that crystal meth causes neurotoxicity by opening the blood-brain barrier, allowing toxic materials from blood to enter the brain. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, they observed vascular dysfunction which causes higher permeability.

References: References:

1. Insight on Bacterial Newborn Meningitis Using a Neurovascular-Unit-on-a-Chip - (https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/spectrum.01233-23)
2. Acute bacterial meningitis in infants and children - (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1473309909703068)
3. Neuronal Damage and Neuroinflammation, a Bridge Between Bacterial Meningitis and Neurodegenerative Diseases - (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2021.680858/full)

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Source-Eurekalert