Ceftriaxone specifically rescues the glutamate transporter GLT-1.

<p>Treatment of infected mice with ceftriaxone was conducted for one week starting at 5 weeks post-infection and compared to naïve and untreated infected mice. Western blot of whole forebrain lysates for A) GLT-1 and B) GS on naïve (n = 3), infected (n = 5) and ceftriaxone treated (GLT-1 n = 5; GS n = 7) animals (Student’s t-test: GLT-1 naive vs. infected: p = 0.0144; GLT-1 infected vs. ceftriaxone: p = 0.0172; GS naïve vs. infected: p = 0.0002; GS infected vs. ceftriaxone: ns). C) Immunohistochemistry for GLT-1 and GFAP on 12μm thick frontal cortex sections (scale bar: 80μm). D) Glutamate and glutamine concentrations in the extracellular space of naïve (n = 4), infected (n = 6) and ceftriaxone (n = 3) treated mice as measured by microdialysis and LCMS (Student’s t-test: naive vs. infected: p = 0.0003; infected vs. ceftriaxone: p = 0.0072).