Studies link gene with meningococcal septic shock:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Two Dutch teams have discovered a genetic variation that could make a patient infected with the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis more susceptible to developing potentially-fatal septic shock. In the first study, researchers found that infected patients from families carrying a 4G/4G polymorphism in a gene which codes for plasminogen-activator-inhibitor (PAI-1), an enzyme involved in the formation of blood clots, were six times more likely to develop septic shock than meningitis. The second study showed that children with meningococcal disease who had the 4G/4G PAI-1 genotype had higher PAI-1 concentrations and an increased risk of death. Both studies appear in The Lancet (August 14).