High extracellular concentration of excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate in human brain abscess

•In a brain abscess extracellular amino acid level may exceed 100 mmol/L.•Extracellular glutamate and aspartate may reach several millimoles per liter.•Pus levels of aspartate were higher in patients who developed seizures.•Amino acids in pus may affect neurotransmission in the surrounding brain tissue.

Brain abscesses often cause symptoms of brain dysfunction, including seizures, suggesting interference with normal neurotransmission. We determined the concentration of extracellular neuroactive amino acids in brain abscesses from 16 human patients. Glutamate was present at 3.6 mmol/L (median value, range 0.5–10.8), aspartate at 1.0 mmol/L (range 0.09–6.8). For comparison, in cerebroventricular fluid glutamate was ∼0.6 μmol/L, and aspartate was not different from zero. The total concentration of amino acids was higher in eight patients with seizures: 66 mmol/L (median value, range 19–109) vs. 21 mmol/L (range 4–52) in eight patients without seizures (p = 0.026). The concentration of aspartate and essential amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine, tyrosine, leucine, and isoleucine was higher in pus from patients with seizures (p ⩽ 0.040), whereas that of glutamate was not (p = 0.095). The median concentration of the non-proteinogenic, inhibitory amino acid taurine was similar in the two groups, 0.7–0.8 mmol/L (range 0.1–6.1). GABA could not be detected in pus. The patient groups did not differ with respect to abscess volume, the cerebral lobe affected, age, or time from symptom onset to surgery. Seven patients with extracerebral, intracranial abscesses had significantly lower pus concentration of glutamate (352 μmol/L, range 83–1368) and aspartate (71 μmol/L, range 22–330) than intracerebral abscesses (p < 0.001). We conclude that excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate may reach very high concentrations in brain abscesses, probably contributing to symptoms through activation of glutamate receptors in the surrounding brain tissue.