When germs get on your nerves

Almost a third of patients suffer from neurological or psychological consequences following a serious infectious disease. The extent, severity and duration of the symptoms can vary greatly. Impairment of brain function has been proven in particular in sepsis survivors who have overcome a very severe infection.

However, Medicine still knows very little about how the viruses and bacteria that cause inflammation in the body can also impair nerve function in the brain. »In the new NeurInfect Research Training Group, we want to investigate how the interplay between the inflammatory reaction and changes at the level of the brain networks can lead to the development of neuropsychiatric complaints«, explains psychiatrist Prof. Dr Nils Opel.

The focus here is on bacterial and viral pneumonia, which are the most common and often serious infections. Together with neurologist Prof. Christian Geis, bioinformatician Prof. Manja Marz and researchers from Infectious Diseases and Intensive Care Medicine, Psychology, Microbiology and Neurophysiology, an interdisciplinary research programme has been designed on the topic, which particularly talented young researchers from the natural sciences and Medicine are now tackling in the NeurInfect Research Training Group. The German Research Foundation is funding the research training group in Jena with the participation of researchers in Berlin with 8.4 million euros.

Laboratory and clinical departments in tandem

What is special about NeurInfect is that the researchers work on the topics in tandems, looking at both the basic scientific and the clinical side of the issue. For example, they are investigating brain network changes in animal models using high-resolution microscopy and in patients with pneumonia using MRI. The experimental and clinical research approaches also complement each other in the investigation of cognitive abilities, the influence of the microbiome and metabolic and stress regulation. »We primarily want to contribute to the elucidation of the disease mechanisms underlying infection-related neuropsychiatric diseases«, emphasises Christian Geis. »This is the requirement for innovative treatment approaches and personalised prevention strategies.«

Interdisciplinary scientific community

NeurInfect also aims to build an interdisciplinary scientific community for the topic and give young researchers the opportunity to gain scientific experience and acquire important skills for a successful academic career. The research training group, which will initially run for five years, will support a total of 36 doctoral candidates in the natural sciences and 18 doctoral candidates in medicine; the first positions have been advertised.

Participating institutions:

• Jena University Hospital (JUH)
• Charité – University Medicine Berlin
• Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology Jena – Hans Knöll Institute
• Leibniz Institute on Aging Jena – Fritz Lipmann Institute