About the Authors

Matthias Klein

Contributed equally to this work with: Matthias Klein, Matthijs C. Brouwer, Diederik van de Beek, Uwe Koedel

matthias.klein@med.uni-muenchen.de

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Matthijs C. Brouwer

Contributed equally to this work with: Matthias Klein, Matthijs C. Brouwer, Diederik van de Beek, Uwe Koedel

Affiliations Department of Neurology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Center of Infection and Immunity Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Barbara Angele

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Madelijn Geldhoff

Affiliations Department of Neurology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Center of Infection and Immunity Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Gabriel Marquez

Affiliation Genetrix, Madrid, Spain

Rosa Varona

Affiliation Departamento de Immunologia y Oncologia, Centro National de Biotecnologia, Madrid, Spain

Georg Häcker

Affiliation Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Helga Schmetzer

Affiliation Medical Department III, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Hans Häcker

Affiliation Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America

Sven Hammerschmidt

Affiliation Department Genetics of Microorganisms, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Arie van der Ende

Affiliations Center of Infection and Immunity Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Hans-Walter Pfister

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Diederik van de Beek

Contributed equally to this work with: Matthias Klein, Matthijs C. Brouwer, Diederik van de Beek, Uwe Koedel

Affiliations Department of Neurology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Center of Infection and Immunity Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Uwe Koedel

Contributed equally to this work with: Matthias Klein, Matthijs C. Brouwer, Diederik van de Beek, Uwe Koedel

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Competing Interests

Georg Häcker, Co-Author of the manuscript, serves as editor of PLOS ONE. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Furthermore, as the authors have stated, Gabriel Marquez is employed by a commercial company (Genetrix, Plaza de la Encina, Madrid, Spain). This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MK UK DB MB. Performed the experiments: MK MB BA MG AE HP DB UK. Analyzed the data: MK UK MB DB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GB RV GH HS HH SH GM. Wrote the paper: MK MB DB UK.