Radboudumc researchers Kirsten van Abeelen, Edwin Ardiansyah, Sofiati Dian, Vinod Kumar, Reinout van Crevel and Arjan van Laarhoven used metabolomics to study cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from tuberculous meningitis patients in Vietnam and Indonesia, with long-standing collaborators from Bandung and Jakarta (Indonesia), the Broad Institute (Boston) and the Oxford University Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).
Meningitis is the most severe form of tuberculosis. Damaging inflammation contributes to its poor prognosis. Corticosteroids reduce mortality, but nearly 50% of patients still die or are left disabled. The researchers hypothesized that metabolic pathways may influence disease outcome and help develop more effective host-directed therapy. They measured levels of 469 metabolites in…