Brain fever also known as “Encephalitis” implies inflammation of the brain, is caused by ‘Japanese Encephalitis’ virus. Though there are not many instances in India, still few thousands causalities every year could be credited to it. It has high mortality and morbidity rates.

In a recent study conducted by two researchers at ‘National Brain Research Center (NBRC)’ suggest that “minocycline”, a common antibiotic may be effective to combat his disease among the children.

“Minocycline”, an USFDA approved drug, is used to treat bacterial infections including pneumonia and other respiratory tract infections; acne; and infections of skin, genital, and urinary systems. It is also used to remove bacteria from the nose and throat that may cause meningitis (swelling of tissues around the brain) in others. It belongs to the class of medications called “tetracycline antibiotics”. It works by preventing the growth and spread of bacteria.

Anirban Basu, PhD, Staff Scientist and senior author of this work from NBRC, Manesar, Haryana says “this antibiotic may be a strong candidate for further consideration as a therapeutic drug in patients with JE“. This recent study would soon be a part of a future issue of “Journal of Neurochemistry”, a journal of the ‘International Society for Neurochemistry’.

This group has done research on similar lines in the past too and shown that “Japanese Encephalitis (JE)” causes overproduction of certain ‘cyttokines’ and ‘proteins’ in the body which further leads to inflammation in the brain as well as causes death of many neurons.
This study contributed in the way of devising a more effective treatment for JE. It showed that “minocycline” lessens the increased level of cytokines and neuronal death which occurs after the body is infected with JE. It also shows a noticeable fall in microgliosis and production of cytokine and viral titer. It also improves the behavioral outcome resulting out of JE.

There are regular epidemics of JE in India and we always try to control the situation when it affects the gigantic population. A most recent epidemic in Uttar Pradesh in India has been reported in this study where one thousand people lost lives to it, mostly children below 15 years of age.

Till now a premier medical research institute near Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, had been manufacturing a vaccine against this infection. However they also could continue it as it was found to be too expensive and moreover it was not possible to make a large quantity to suffice the mass of population to be covered. Its affectivity was not up to the mark in spite of being enriched with multiple boosters. These boosters, Dr. Basu noticed made the vaccine to be more expensive and out of reach of common masses and also treatment was left too difficult to be followed up.

Since most of backward and rural areas are victim of this epidemic, it is difficult to transport the vaccines in larger quantities to those areas at the time of the instances. On the other hand, minocycline, a tetracycline could be easily bought over the counter in a medical shop and is also available in a primary health care center, and offers an economical treatment.

This study brings a hope of new treatments being devised to combat this disease and boosts the idea of use of “minocycline” as a clinical trial to control this infection.

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