Zhenhai Wang
Neurologist in Yinchuan who leads cell studies of microglia, the brain's immune cells, and of how Brucella bacteria survive inside them
Neurology Center and Diagnosis and Treatment Engineering Technology Research Center of Nervous System Diseases of Ningxia, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University (papers 2011–2026)
Brucellosis is an infection passed from farm animals to people, and it can reach the brain. The bacteria survive inside immune cells instead of being destroyed. Zhenhai Wang was senior author of LI2026B, a 2026 paper in the Journal of Medical Microbiology that asked how a Brucella strain does this in microglia, the immune cells of the brain. The team used BV2 cells, a mouse microglia cell line, infected with Brucella suis vaccine strain 2. The bacteria pushed the cells into a mixed state between M1 (the inflammatory, bacteria-killing mode) and M2 (the calmer, repair mode) and switched on autophagy. The M2 state and autophagy together helped the bacteria multiply inside the cells, and the effect ran through the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway.
Normally, autophagy helps immune cells destroy invading microbes. This study suggests that some bacteria can turn it to their own advantage, with mTOR signalling as part of the switch. It was done in a cell line, so it shows a possible mechanism and not what happens in infected patients.
Wang works in neurology at the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University in Yinchuan and in the hospital's engineering research centre for nervous system diseases. The group's PubMed record goes back to a 2011 study of how hepatitis C virus stimulates mouse microglia, and includes a cerebrospinal fluid research laboratory, BV2 cell lines engineered to lack particular phosphatases, a 2024 study on how exosomes from microglia affect myelin repair, and a 2025 study on how doxycycline kills human microglial cells infected with the same Brucella strain.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | M | Brucella suis vaccine strain 2 promotes intracellular proliferation by inducing M2 macrophage polarization and autophagy through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling. LI2026B Senior author: led the cell study showing that Brucella suis vaccine strain 2 drives M2 polarisation and autophagy in microglia through PI3K/Akt/mTOR to favour its own replication. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Zhenhai Wang.
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- Juan Yang Contributed to a study showing that the Brucella suis vaccine strain S2 drives macrophage polarisation and autophagy through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling to survive inside cells
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