New compound to combat meningitis

• April 19, 2024

Researchers from the United States and Italy discovered a substance that could offer protection against more than 300 strains of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidiso (Meningococcus B), which causes meningitis . A potentially lethal disease, which causes inflammation of the meninges, the membranes that line the brain and spinal cord.

The disease can produce brain damage , disability for learning, deafness, limb amputation and death in 5% of patients who suffer from it.

There are hundreds of strains of meningococcus and currently there are already vaccines against some of them, such as A, C, W-135 and Y. But meningococcus B, the most variant and most common, it has been very difficult to control; because of its high genetic diversity and you do not have a immunization.

The new substance was called G1 And, it is able to induce the antibodies to kill all the strains of meningococcus B. The compound, say scientists, could be used in a universal vaccine against hundreds of meningococcal variants.
 

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