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JAC Advance Access published online on November 1, 2006
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkl446
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received August 20, 2006
Revised October 9, 2006
Accepted October 9, 2006

Original article

Minocycline delays but does not attenuate the course of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in Streptococcus pneumoniae-infected mice

Isabel Herrmann 1, Markus Kellert 1, Annette Spreer 1, Joachim Gerber 1, Helmut Eiffert 2, Marco Prinz 3 {dagger}, and Roland Nau 1 * {dagger}

1 Department of Neurology, Georg August University, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
2 Department of Clinical Microbiology, Georg August University, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
3 Department of Neuropathology, Georg August University, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Roland Nau, E-mail: rnau{at}gwdg.de


  Abstract

Objectives: Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), can be aggravated by a mild Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. This study was performed to assess whether treatment with antibiotics inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis reduces the detrimental effect of infection on the course of EAE.

Methods: In vitro, release of proinflammatory pneumococcal products was studied by enzyme immunoassay and western blot. Seven days after induction of EAE (prior to the onset of symptoms) mice were infected intraperitoneally with S. pneumoniae and treated either with the inhibitors of bacterial protein synthesis minocycline or rifampicin, or with the {beta}-lactam ceftriaxone.

Results: During bacterial killing in vitro, minocycline and rifampicin released lower quantities of proinflammatory bacterial products from S. pneumoniae than ceftriaxone. Mice treated with minocycline developed symptoms of EAE 1 day later than mice treated with ceftriaxone. Neither minocycline nor rifampicin therapy, however, reduced the severity of EAE in comparison with ceftriaxone treatment.

Conclusions: Although statistically significant (P = 0.04), a delay of 1 day in the onset of symptoms of EAE after minocycline treatment is of minor clinical relevance. These data do not support the hypothesis of superiority of a bacterial protein synthesis inhibitor over a {beta}-lactam antibiotic for the treatment of concomitant infections during the latent phase of EAE or MS.

Keywords: rifampicin; ceftriaxone; lipoteichoic acids; pneumolysin.
{dagger}These authors contributed equally to this work.
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