Scientists have discovered a natural temperature sensor in one of the bacteria that cause meningitis and blood poisoning, which allows them to evade the body’s immune response leading to life-threatening infections.
The study, funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, found that increasing the temperature causes the bacteria to make more capsule – a protective layer that surrounds the bacterium like an ‘invisibility cloak’, helping it to evade detection by the immune system. The research, published in Nature, suggests that people may be more susceptible to infection by the bacteria when they have a fever and could explain why outbreaks of flu (which causes fever) are often followed by an increase in cases of sepsis and meningitis. The findings may also help scientists develop new vaccines against the bacteria in future.
