Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0085437 (bacterial meningitis)
 4,038 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

IL-16 is an immunomodulatory cytokine that is characterized by chemotactic activity and stimulation of proinflammatory cytokine expression in monocytic cells. We studied IL-16 using ELISA in children with meningitis. When meningeal symptoms existed, IL-16 levels were high in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of both bacterial (939 +/- 877 ng/l, n = 20) and aseptic (341 +/- 371 ng/l, n = 23) meningitis. The values in the CSF were significantly higher than those in non-meningitis controls (29 +/- 8 ng/l, n = 22, P < 0.0001). After meningeal symptoms disappeared, IL-16 levels in bacterial (191 +/- 149 ng/l, n = 10, P = 0.0042) and aseptic (159 +/- 188 ng/l, n = 13, P = 0.0118) meningitis were lower than those during the symptomatic stage. IL-16 levels were the highest before day 5 of the illness and then gradually fell. Significant correlations were found between IL-16 levels and both G-CSF levels (r = 0.783, n = 11, p = 0.0029) and IL-6 levels (r = 0.818, n = 12, P = 0.0005) in the CSF of bacterial and aseptic meningitis. IL-16 levels in all CSF samples from non-meningitis controls were lower than those in serum. In contrast, IL-16 levels in the CSF in six of 16 samples from bacterial meningitis and two of 18 samples from aseptic meningitis were higher than those in serum. Serum levels of IL-16 did not fluctuate throughout the course of meningitis. These data indicate that IL-16 levels rise transiently in CSF at the initial stage of meningitis. We speculate that IL-16 may promote inflammatory responses during meningitis in concert with other proinflammatory cytokines.
 ...
PMID:Transient elevation of interleukin-16 levels at the initial stage of meningitis in children. 1260 2

Increased vascular permeability causing vasogenic brain edema is characteristic for many acute neurological diseases such as stroke, brain trauma, and meningitis. Src family kinases, especially c-Src, play an important role in regulating blood-brain barrier permeability in response to VEGF, but also mediate leukocyte function and cytokine signalling. Here we demonstrate that pharmacological inhibition of Src or c-Src deficiency does not influence cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis, brain edema formation, and bacterial outgrowth during experimental pneumococcal meningitis despite the increased cerebral expression of inflammatory chemokines, such as IL-6, CCL-9, CXCL-1, CXCL-2 and G-CSF as determined by protein array analysis. In contrast, inhibition of Src significantly reduced brain edema formation, lesion volume, and clinical worsening in cold-induced brain injury without decreasing cytokine/chemokine expression. While brain trauma was associated with increased cerebral VEGF formation, VEGF levels significantly declined during pneumococcal meningitis. Therefore, we conclude that in brain trauma blood-brain barrier tightness is regulated by the VEGF/Src pathway whereas c-Src does not influence brain edema formation and leukocyte function during bacterial meningitis.
 ...
PMID:Differential regulation of blood-brain barrier permeability in brain trauma and pneumococcal meningitis-role of Src kinases. 1701 Mar 40