Scientists are celebrating a major breakthrough in the treatment of meningitis.
Researchers studying the DNA of hundreds of children have found strong evidence that genetic factors can increase the risk of a person developing meningitis, a potentially fatal disease that results from inflammation of the lining of the brain.
The breakthrough is being seen as a major development in finding a cure for meningitis, and could help in the search for a vaccine.
Meningitis is often caused by viruses or bacteria but can be caused by other microbes, including fungi. One of the most common and potentially fatal bacterial causes of meningitis is Neisseria meningitidis known as type B, although type C has caused more deaths until its vaccine was created, in the late nineties.
The large sample study compared the DNA of children who had contracted meningococcal meningitis with the DNA of healthy children and identified several genetic variants in a region of DNA containing genes associated with a part of the immune system, including a variant in the gene that produces a protein called complement factor H (CFH).
Variations in this genetic area are linked to susceptibility to disease, and the findings may well help with the development of a vaccine against type B meningococcal meningitis, of which until now there has been little progress on making a breakthrough.
Professor Michael Levin, from the Department of Paediatrics at Imperial College London, said:
“Although most of us have carried the meningitis bacteria at some point, only around one in 40,000 people develop meningococcal meningitis.
“Our study set out to understand what causes this small group of people to become very ill whilst others remain immune. Our findings provide the strongest evidence so far that there are genetic factors that lead to people developing meningitis.”
An effective vaccine against type C meningitis is already given to children in the UK and has greatly reduced deaths from this disease.
Research into the development of a vaccine effective against type B meningococcal meningitis is likely to continue.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore and other research institutions across the world, including the UK, funded by the Wellcome Trust as well as other organisations.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature Genetics.
The research was carried out in several stages, first with the DNA of 475 children, average age of about three years old.
The variations found were then compared with the DNA from 4,703 healthy children. This identified 79 significantly different genetic variations between the groups that could be investigated further.
Meningitis requires early recognition and urgent treatment for it to be treated.
Symptoms include severe headache, neck stiffness, difficulty in looking at bright lights, fever, nausea and vomiting and altered consciousness.
In babies and young children, these characteristic signs and symptoms may not be present so parents have to be especially alert to irritability or lethargy and excessive crying as well as vomiting, poor feeding and other signs of distress.
The study has already been welcomed by a number of health practitioners. If a vaccine is found it is likely to take several more years before it comes on the market.
