Central Nervous System Tuberculosis in a Murine Model: Neurotropic Strains or a New Pathway of Infection?

Tuberculosis (TB) of the central nervous system (CNS) is a lethal and incapacitating disease. Several studies have been performed to understand the mechanism of bacterial arrival to CNS, however, it remains unclear. Although the interaction of the host, the pathogen, and the environment trigger the course of the disease, in TB the characteristics of these factors seem to be more relevant in the genesis of the clinical features of each patient. We previously tested three mycobacterial clinical isolates with distinctive genotypes obtained from the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with meningeal TB and showed that these strains disseminated extensively to the brain after intratracheal inoculation and pulmonary infection in BALB/c mice. In this present study, BALB/c mice were infected through the intranasal route. One of these strains reaches the olfactory bulb at the early stage of the infection and infects the brain before the lungs, but the histological study of the nasal mucosa did not show any alteration. This observation suggests that some mycobacteria strains can arrive directly at the brain, apparently toward the olfactory nerve after infecting the nasal mucosa, and guides us to study in more detail during mycobacteria infection the nasal mucosa, the associated connective tissue, and nervous structures of the cribriform plate, which connect the nasal cavity with the olfactory bulb.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection Induces BCSFB Disruption but No BBB Disruption In Vivo: Implications in the Pathophysiology of Tuberculous Meningitis.

Central nervous system (CNS) tuberculosis is the most lethal and devastating form among the diseases caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The mechanisms by which M. tuberculosis bacilli enter the CNS are still unclear. However, the BBB and the BCSFB have been proposed as possible routes of access into the brain. We previously reported that certain strains of M. tuberculosis possess an enhanced ability to cause secondary CNS infection in a mouse model of progressive pulmonary tuberculosis. Here, we evaluated the morphostructural and molecular integrity of CNS barriers. For this purpose, we analyzed through transmission electron microscopy the ultrastructure of brain parenchymal microvessels and choroid plexus epithelium from animals infected with two mycobacterial strains. Additionally, we determined the expression of junctional proteins and cytokines by immunological techniques. The results showed that the presence of M. tuberculosis induced disruption of the BCSFB but no disruption of the BBB, and that the severity of such damage was related to the strain used, suggesting that variations in the ability to cause CNS disease among distinct strains of bacteria may also be linked to their capacity to cause direct or indirect disruption of these barriers. Understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in CNS tuberculosis may facilitate the establishment of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Iron porphyrinate Fe(TPPS) reduces brain cell damage in rats intrastriatally lesioned by quinolinate.

It has been recently demonstrated that the reactive nitrogen species (RNS) peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)) is involved in the neurotoxic pattern produced by quinolinic acid in the rat brain [V. Pérez-De La Cruz, C. González-Cortés, S. Galván-Arzate, O.N. Medina-Campos, F. Pérez-Severiano, S.F. Ali, J. Pedraza-Chaverrí, A. Santamaría, Excitotoxic brain damage involves early peroxynitrite formation in a model of Huntington's disease in rats: protective role of iron porphyrinate 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrinate iron (III), Neuroscience 135 (2005) 463-474.]. The aim of this work was to investigate whether ONOO(-) can also be responsible for morphological alterations and inflammatory events in the same paradigm. For this purpose, we evaluated the effect of a pre-treatment with the iron porphyrinate Fe(TPPS), a well-known ONOO(-) decomposition catalyst (10 mg/kg, i.p., 120 min before lesion), on the quinolinate-induced striatal cell damage and immunoreactivities to glial-fibrilar acidic protein (GFAP), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), one and seven days after the intrastriatal infusion of quinolinate (240 nmol/microl) to rats. The striatal tissue from animals lesioned by quinolinate showed a significant degree of damage and enhanced immunoreactivities to GFAP, IL-6 and iNOS, both at 1 and 7 days post-lesion. Pre-treatment of rats with Fe(TPPS) significantly attenuated or prevented all these markers at both post-lesion times tested, except for GFAP immunoreactivity at 7 days post-lesion and iNOS immunoreactivity at 1 day post-lesion. Altogether, our results suggest that ONOO(-) is actively participating in triggering inflammatory events and morphological alterations in the toxic model produced by quinolinate, since the use of agents affecting its formation, such as Fe(TPPS), are effective experimental tools to reduce the brain lesions associated to excitotoxic and oxidative damage.

A Molecular Chameleon: Chromophoric Sensing by a Self-Complexing Molecular Assembly.

A color change from purple to green takes place on addition of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) to the macrobicyclic receptor 14+ , which is composed of a cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) tetracation that shares one of its paraphenylene rings with a 1,5-naphthoparaphenylene-[36]crown-10 macrocycle. The TTF molecule forces the macrobicycle to turn inside out (see schematic drawing below) and displaces the self-complexed 1,5-dioxynaphthalene ring system from the center of the tetracationic cyclophane.

Translational Isomerism in Some Two- and Three-Station [2]Rotaxanes.

The template-directed syntheses of three [2]rotaxanes are described. They all have dumbbell components, with both hydroquinone and resorcinol rings inserted into polyether chains terminated by tetraarylmethane stoppers, that become encircled during the key self-assembly processes by the tetracationic cyclophane, cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene), with its two pi-electron deficient bipyridinium units. It has been demonstrated by low-temperature (1)H NMR spectroscopy that the pi-electron deficient tetracationic cyclophane has a remarkably high preference to reside around the hydroquinone ring in these molecular shuttles. This observation illustrates how a very small constitutional difference-hydroquinone versus resorcinol recognition sites-can lead to the overwhelming preference for one translational isomer over another in this particular range of [2]rotaxanes.