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+--- Thread: Scientist exploration of the brain and Immune Responses (/Thread-Scientist-exploration-of-the-brain-and-Immune-Responses)
Scientist exploration of the brain and Immune Responses - Maxmars - 05-08-2024
Recently, a dear friend of mine ran across a fascinating article at Nature.com which I intend to offer for discussion. It's a bit difficult because the source, while well-written and professional in its form leaves me with some reservations. I am not exactly sure I would have expanded upon it exactly as she has... but I am just a layman.
Source - Nature.com: Found: the dial in the brain that controls the immune system
Subtitled: Scientists identify the brain cells that regulate inflammation, and pinpoint how they keep tabs on the immune response.
Based Upon Nature.com: A body–brain circuit that regulates body inflammatory responses
The article tries to present that scientists have identified certain cell-types in the brainstem that react to immune 'cues' from the body thus acting as a 'master regulator' of inflammatory responses.
While this description adequately reflects the notional relationship between some signals and the brains' activity, it seems a bit premature to declare it the master regulator in a dynamic electrochemical engine. But I must give credit to researchers who chose to 'look' at the problem with an eye for what they were missing. From the article:
The results, published on 1 May in Nature1, suggest that the brain maintains a delicate balance between the molecular signals that promote inflammation and those that dampen it — a finding that could lead to treatments for autoimmune diseases and other conditions caused by an excessive immune response.
The discovery is akin to a black-swan event — unexpected but making perfect sense once revealed, says Ruslan Medzhitov, an immunologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Scientists have known that the brainstem has many functions, such as controlling basic processes such as breathing. However, he adds, the study “shows that there is whole layer of biology that we haven’t even anticipated”.
Researchers stimulated and observed immune responses in mice, specifically watching the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a clustering of both sensing and motor nerves that runs from the brain into the thorax and has been demonstrated to be important in autonomic functions such as breathing. There are certain elements of this nerve which respond directly and immediately in the presence of those chemical signals which 'tell' the brain that an infectious event may be underway. These nerves apparently initiate a process which makes the immune response (commonly referred to as "inflammation.")
From the research:
... We demonstrate that pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines communicate with distinct populations of vagal neurons to inform the brain of an emerging inflammatory response. In turn, the brain tightly modulates the course of the peripheral immune response...
The research may be central to medical treatment development in cases where the immune system harms the patient, as in Long COVID, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. It allows for a theoretical application that might intercede when the immune system is as, or more, damaging than the illness. A promising prospect.
From the research again:
Genetic silencing of this body-to-brain circuit produced unregulated and out-of-control inflammatory responses. By contrast, activating, rather than silencing, this circuit affords exceptional neural control of immune responses. We used single-cell RNA sequencing, combined with functional imaging, to identify the circuit components of this neuro-immune axis, and showed that its selective manipulation can effectively suppress the pro-inflammatory response while enhancing an anti-inflammatory state. The brain-evoked transformation of the course of an immune response offers new possibilities in the modulation of a wide range of immune disorders, from autoimmune diseases to cytokine storm and shock.
While I may be alone in this regard, I find the idea of RNA sequencing as a solution to be precarious. But the promise of being able to keep people from suffering is ample motivation to pursue the idea. The Scientists are understandably cautious, much to my relief.
From the article:
Besides the neuronal network identified in the study, there might be other routes through which the body transmits immune signals to the brain, says Stephen Liberles, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. What’s more, the mechanisms by which the brain sends signals back to the immune system to regulate inflammation remain unclear. “We’re just scratching the surface,” he says. “We need to understand the rule book of how the brain and the immune system interact.”
My special thanks to she who pointed me to this article. This research holds promise.
