It may not only be caused by physical weakness to feel cool, depressed, worried and concentrating while sick. Comprehensive reports from healthcare professionals pointed out that these symptoms labeled as “disease behavior” are more than the body’s side effects that fight an infection. It seems part of a deliberate model of behavior directed by the cooperation between the brain and the immune system.
This pattern may have evolutionary importance that helps to protect the society by reducing direct contact and preventing the spread of the disease. Furthermore, it can give valuable information about the mental health conditions that cause potentially new treatment strategies.
Two studies From Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cell, It brought one step closer to understanding the molecular mechanisms behind how inflammation affected our mood and behavior. The research has determined which parts of the immune system communicate with the brain to explain this phenomenon.
Brain-Immune Sitookines
Cytokines are small protein harbers released by a wide variety of cells, especially immune cells. They help to communicate immune cells, while preparing to initiate an inflammatory response, especially to fight pathogens.
Cytokines are not all the same; They are divided into two broad categories: each, each, pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory, which plays a role in maintaining the precise balance between infections and prevention of excessive inflammation.
To send a message, the cytokines are connected to receptors in the immune cells, such as a switch attached to a lock to fulfill their roles in the immune system. Interestingly, cytokines not only affect immune reactions; Effects It reaches out to the brainTo influence cognition, mood and behavior.
For example, 2019 to work In mice, IL-17A, a cytokine released during fever caused by inflammatory infections, suggested that the temporary decrease in social behavior frequently observed in autistic children. While this discovery implies the complexity of the brain-immus, the full scope is still not well understood.
Read more: Visualizing the brain connection can help diagnose mental illnesses
To reveal the role of cytokines in mood and behavior
The same researchers who work on autism on autism expanded their research to investigate how and where the cytokine signals in the brain affect the mood, anxiety and social behavior.
One to work IL-17A and IL-17C specific cytokines such as the amygdala’yı-Beynin horror center-how to aim and how to affect the neural activity and increased concern. Interestingly, when researchers try to block the receptor (receptor antagonism is a common pharmacological effect of many commercial drugs), anxiety has actually increased. Another fascinating finding was seen that the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 reduced anxiety.
Another to work He turned to autism -like behaviors and further investigated his role in the regulation of the mood of cytokines. In addition to IL-17A, he described several cytokines and receptors in mice with autism-like features. In particular, it was found that IL-17E was produced by neurons in the brain and was positioned as a neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
“Our results emphasize the important role of immune signaling in shaping the mood and behavior in shaping the mood and behavior by acting according to certain brain paths,” MIT’s joint writer Gloria Choi said, ” Press release.
Potential alternatives to traditional psychiatric drugs
“We have started to solve the complex relationship between the nervous and immune systems on the mood and the impact of this complex mixing on the mood and behavior by determining where and how the cytokine receptors work in the brain,” Jun Huh, who is a professor of immunology at the Blavatnik Institute at the HMS and Partners-Eski author. He said.
While Huh and Choi’s research forwards us in understanding brain immune communication, more studies are required especially in human practice.
In the future, new treatments for autism and anxiety disorders may be a result of these first findings. Unlike traditional psychiatric drugs that directly change brain chemistry, these treatments can adjust the immune signals from outside the brain and offer a new approach using the immune system.
Read more: Excessive concern about health may be symptoms of illness anxiety disorder
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Jenny, who works as a biomedical research assistant in laboratories in three countries, is perfect in translating complex scientific concepts from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest nutrition – to attractive, accessible content. The areas of interest are spread to issues such as human evolution, psychology and interesting animal stories. When you do not dive into a popular science book, you will find waves or cruise caught around the Vancouver Island in Longboard.
