{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiaf565","title":"Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription 1 (STAT1), STAT2, and T Cells Mediate Interferon-Dependent Protection Against Neurobrucellosis","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Brucellosis is a significant zoonotic disease throughout the world. Human brucellosis patients develop flu-like symptoms and focal complications including arthritis and neurobrucellosis, which is the most morbid complication of Brucella infection. METHODS: In this study, we employed murine models to uncover the role of T-cell-mediated immunity, interferons, and signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) signaling in the development of neurobrucellosis caused by Brucella melitensis. RESULTS: Through adoptive transfer experiments, we discovered that T cells are recruited to the brains of Brucella-infected mice and are able to prevent central nervous system infection in an interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-dependent manner. Transferred T cells were also able to reduce established colonization of the brain by Brucella. In addition, we found that STAT1 plays a protective role against colonization of the brain by Brucella and the progression of neurobrucellosis, and that IFN-γ signaling is not entirely essential for these protective effects. While STAT2 deficiency alone did not affect Brucella burdens, a combined deficiency of STAT2 and the IFN-γ receptor led to elevated Brucella burdens in brains and blood, and a higher likelihood of developing neurologic symptoms relative to animals lacking the IFN-γ receptor alone. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that T cells and IFN signaling through both STAT1 and STAT2 play complex and important roles in protecting against bacterial colonization and development of neurologic symptoms following infection by Brucella.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2025,"id":580936,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9653,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1080802,"name":"Mostafa F. N. Abushahba","orcid":"0000-0002-3616-3800","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":702161,"name":"Bárbara Ponzilacqua-Silva","orcid":"0000-0001-5679-5242","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":559568,"name":"Irina Kochetkova","orcid":"0000-0002-1594-427X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402784,"name":"Christa D. Jackson","orcid":"0000-0002-4152-2222","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":702162,"name":"Jerod A. Skyberg","orcid":"0000-0002-2337-908X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1080803,"name":"Charles R. Moley","orcid":"0000-0002-1783-3450","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":27,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:43.046112Z","pmid":"41222574","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}