Adjunctive N-acetyl-L-cysteine in treatment of murine pneumococcal meningitis

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2013 Oct;57(10):4825-30. doi: 10.1128/AAC.00148-13. Epub 2013 Jul 22.

Abstract

Despite antibiotic therapy, acute and long-term complications are still frequent in pneumococcal meningitis. One important trigger of these complications is oxidative stress, and adjunctive antioxidant treatment with N-acetyl-l-cysteine was suggested to be protective in experimental pneumococcal meningitis. However, studies of effects on neurological long-term sequelae are limited. Here, we investigated the impact of adjunctive N-acetyl-l-cysteine on long-term neurological deficits in a mouse model of meningitis. C57BL/6 mice were intracisternally infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae. Eighteen hours after infection, mice were treated with a combination of ceftriaxone and placebo or ceftriaxone and N-acetyl-l-cysteine, respectively. Two weeks after infection, neurologic deficits were assessed using a clinical score, an open field test (explorative activity), a t-maze test (memory function), and auditory brain stem responses (hearing loss). Furthermore, cochlear histomorphological correlates of hearing loss were assessed. Adjunctive N-acetyl-l-cysteine reduced hearing loss after pneumococcal meningitis, but the effect was minor. There was no significant benefit of adjunctive N-acetyl-l-cysteine treatment in regard to other long-term complications of pneumococcal meningitis. Cochlear morphological correlates of meningitis-associated hearing loss were not reduced by adjunctive N-acetyl-l-cysteine. In conclusion, adjunctive therapy with N-acetyl-l-cysteine at a dosage of 300 mg/kg of body weight intraperitoneally for 4 days reduced hearing loss but not other neurologic deficits after pneumococcal meningitis in mice. These results make a clinical therapeutic benefit of N-acetyl-l-cysteine in the treatment of patients with pneumococcal meningitis questionable.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetylcysteine / chemistry*
  • Acetylcysteine / therapeutic use*
  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Ceftriaxone / therapeutic use
  • Cochlea / microbiology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Hearing Loss / drug therapy
  • Male
  • Meningitis, Pneumococcal / drug therapy*
  • Meningitis, Pneumococcal / microbiology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Ceftriaxone
  • Acetylcysteine