How meningitis-causing bacteria invade the brain

Bacteria can slip into the brain by commandeering cells in the brain’s protective layers, a new study finds. The results hint at how a deadly infection called bacterial meningitis takes hold.

In mice infected with meningitis-causing bacteria, the microbes exploit previously unknown communication between pain-sensing nerve cells and immune cells to slip by the brain’s defenses, researchers report March 1 in Nature. The results also hint at a new way to possibly delay the invasion — using migraine medicines to interrupt those cell-to-cell conversations.

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