astro
July 17, 2016, 3:53pm
1
Interesting article. . Synopsis is that this newly discovered mechanism that directly connects the brain to the immune system is a paradigm changing way of looking at how the brain and body work especially with respect to social interactions.
Shocking New Role Found for the Immune System: Controlling Social Interactions
New Role Found For The Immune System
In a paper published in July 2016, UVA researchers determined that the immune system affects – and even controls – social behavior. Their discovery could profoundly affect treatment of several neurological disorders such as diseases such as autism-spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. The relationship between people and pathogens, the researchers suggest, could have directly affected the development of our social behavior, allowing us to engage in the social interactions necessary for the survival of the species while developing ways for our immune systems to protect us from the diseases that accompany those interactions
It’s a stunning discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching: researchers at the School of Medicine have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. “I really did not believe there were structures in the body that we were not aware of. I thought the body was mapped,” said Jonathan Kipnis, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and director of the University’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia. How these vessels could have escaped detection when the lymphatic system has been so thoroughly mapped throughout the body is surprising on its own.
But the true significance of the discovery lies in its ramifications for the study and treatment of neurological diseases ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis. Kipnis said researchers no longer need to ask questions such as, “How do we study the immune response of the brain?” or “Why do multiple sclerosis patients have immune system attacks?” “Now we can approach this mechanistically — because the brain is like every other tissue connected to the peripheral immune system through meningeal lymphatic vessels,” Kipnis said. “We believe that for every neurological disease that has an immune component to it, these vessels may play a major role.”
The discovery was made possible by the work of Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow in Kipnis’ lab. The vessels were detected after Louveau developed a method to mount a mouse’s meninges — the membranes covering the brain — on a single slide so that they could be examined as a whole. After noticing vessel-like patterns in the distribution of immune cells on his slides, he tested for lymphatic vessels and there they were. The impossible existed. “Live imaging of these vessels was crucial to demonstrate their function, and it would not be possible without collaboration with Tajie Harris,” Kipnis noted. Harris is an assistant professor of neuroscience and a member of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia. Kipnis also saluted the “phenomenal” surgical skills of Igor Smirnov, a research associate in the Kipnis lab whose work was critical to the imaging success of the study.
It’s not that stunning. The first cases of what are now called ADHD were studied in children who had survived epidemic encephalitis in the early 1900s, and PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) is associated with developing OCD aftera step infection.
elfkin477:
It’s not that stunning. The first cases of what are now called ADHD were studied in children who had survived epidemic encephalitis in the early 1900s, and PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections) is associated with developing OCD aftera step infection.
Yes it is, those are examples of the immune system mistaking the brain for foreign tissue and attacking it, this is postulating an ongoing command and control relationship between the immune system and the brain. They found a relationship no one suspected based on anatomical structures no one knew existed, well done UVA!