This model on apoptosis inhibition appears to be consistent with our results with the animal model, as we observed that the caspase-3 (Figure 4), an “executioner” caspase on which both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways converge (Vaughan et al., 2002), increased its expression in the mouse brain after the meningococcal infection but was not activated. Here, CASP3 is linked to meningococcal infection.