Type 1-skewed neuroinflammation and vascular damage associated with Orientia tsutsugamushi infection in mice.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Scrub typhus is a life-threatening disease, due to infection with O. tsutsugamushi, a Gram-negative bacterium that preferentially replicates in endothelial cells and professional phagocytes. Meningoencephalitis has been reported in scrub typhus patients and experimentally-infected animals; however, the neurological manifestation and its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we focused on Orientia tsutsugamushi Karp strain (OtK), and examined host responses in the brain during lethal versus self-healing scrub typhus disease in our newly established murine models.

Principle findings

Following inoculation with a lethal dose of OtK, mice had a significant increase in brain transcripts related to pathogen-pattern recognition receptors (

SUBMITTER: Soong L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5542690 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature