title: A journey into the brain: insight into how bacterial pathogens cross blood-brain barriers.
abstract: The blood-brain barrier, which is one of the tightest barriers in the body, protects the brain from insults, such as infections. Indeed, only a few of the numerous blood-borne bacteria can cross the blood-brain barrier to cause meningitis. In this Review, we focus on invasive extracellular pathogens, such as Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, group B Streptococcus and Escherichia coli, to review the obstacles that bacteria have to overcome in order to invade the meninges from the bloodstream, and the specific skills they have developed to bypass the blood-brain barrier. The medical importance of understanding how these barriers can be circumvented is underlined by the fact that we need to improve drug delivery into the brain.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1151, Institut Necker-Enfants Malades, 14 Rue Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 75014 Paris, France.|Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 8253, 75014 Paris, France.|Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Descartes, 75014 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coureuil
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1151, Institut Necker-Enfants Malades, 14 Rue Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 75014 Paris, France.|Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 8253, 75014 Paris, France.|Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Descartes, 75014 Paris, France.|Laboratoire de Microbiologie Clinique, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, 75015 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lécuyer
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Descartes, 75014 Paris, France.|Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1016, Institut Cochin, 22 Rue Méchain, 75014 Paris, France.|Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 8104, 75014 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bourdoulous
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1151, Institut Necker-Enfants Malades, 14 Rue Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 75014 Paris, France.|Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 8253, 75014 Paris, France.|Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Descartes, 75014 Paris, France.|Laboratoire de Microbiologie Clinique, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, 75015 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Nassif
mesh_terms: D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000382:microbiology*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D008578:Meninges / Q000382:microbiology; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D013292:Streptococcus agalactiae / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000472:pathogenicity*