IL6 and infection: Consistent with our previous publications [1, 2, 39, 43, 44], we observed that primary human astrocyte and the hμglia human microglial cell line produce the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 (Fig. 1b, e) in response to infection with N. meningitidis and S. aureus. We also observed IFN-β production in response to bacterial infection 18 h post infection, but in contrast to IL-6, significant IFN-β production was only observed in response to infection with S. aureus indicating that release of interferons is pathogen specific.