Deregulation of cyclooxygenase and nitric oxide synthase gene expression in the inflammatory cascade triggered by experimental group B streptococcal meningitis in the newborn brain and cerebral microvessels

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the most common cause of neonatal sepsis and meningitis. Despite antibiotics, GBS in the newborn initiates a cascade of molecular and biological events leading to altered cerebral perfusion, blood-brain barrier disruption, cerebral edema, intracranial hypertension, neurological damage, and even death. Having previously shown that GBS infection impairs cerebral blood flow autoregulation and increases prostaglandin (PG) levels, we examined the regulation of some crucial inflammatory mediators (PGs, nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α) in the brain and cerebral microvessels (MVs) from newborn piglets. Cyclooxygenase (COX), the key enzyme in PG biosynthesis, exists in two isoforms, COX-1 and COX-2. Both may be directly induced by NO in a model of renal inflammation. Besides its neurotransmitter role, NO is a potent vasorelaxant whose production is catalyzed by at least three distinct nitric oxide synthases (NOS) (bNOS, ecNOS, iNOS). Western blot analyses showed that the newborn (4 day old) brain expressed lower levels of COX-1 (8-fold), COX- 2 (20-fold), bNOS (12-fold), and ecNOS (5-fold) than in the 1 day old. MV showed approximately equal levels of COX-2, lower levels of COX-1 (4-fold), bNOS (5-fold), and higher levels of ecNOS (20-fold) in comparison to 4-day- old cerebral MV. A 4-day-old brain expressed lower levels of bNOS (5-fold), ecNOS (10-fold), and COX-1 (2-fold) than the 6-week-old pig. COX-2 protein was undetected in a 4-day-old pig brain, but present in great excess in MV. Purified MV showed lower ecNOS (14-fold), COX-1 (2-fold), and about equal levels of bNOS and COX-2 in comparison with MV from 6-week-old pigs. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses confirmed these results. Treatment with noo-nitro-L-arginine (LNA), a NOS inhibitor, downregulated COX-1 expression in the newborn brain and both COX-1 and COX-2 cerebral MV expression. GBS infection (109 colony-forming units, 0.5 mL intracerebroventricular) of sedated newborn piglets induced the expression of tumor necrosis factor-α in the cerebrospinal fluid after 2 hours, upregulated bNOS expression in both brain and MVs, upregulated ecNOS in MVs, and downregulated COX-1, COX-2, and ecNOS in the brain. GBS did not trigger the expression of iNOS. Our data suggest that there is a net deficiency of NOS isoforms in the immature brain and microvasculature of the 40-day-old piglet and that the differences in expression lead to the immature control of NO and PG production, rendering newborns particularly susceptible to neurological damage because of the undeveloped nature of their response mechanisms. Moreover, the GBS-induced cascade deregulates expression of interacting inflammatory mediators and may cause a net vasoconstrictor/vasodilator imbalance, leading to cerebral hypertension and edema in the early stages of infection. Pharmacological manipulations of the inflammatory cascade could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of GBS meningitis.