Neuroscience: Brain cells have been discovered that control the symptoms of fever and other illnesses

To Jason Arunn Murugesu

Brain cells have been found in mice that cause symptoms of fever and other illnesses, a finding that may improve the treatment of chronic diseases.

All animals respond to the disease in the same way and experience symptoms such as fever, malaise, and loss of appetite.Previous the study Although fever suggests that raising body temperature helps animals survive seizures and makes it difficult for pathogens to survive. Malaise When Decreased appetite Linked to energy regulations.

To identify the part of the brain that is responsible for coordinating these behaviors Catherine Durac The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States and her colleagues injected mice with molecules that elicit effects similar to real illness. This was done to avoid the risk of the actual pathogen spreading out of control.

One molecule, lipopolysaccharide, mimics the effects of bacterial infections, and the other molecule, polyinosic acid-polycitidilic acid, mimics viral infections. Both molecules cause an acute inflammatory response, which in turn causes symptoms such as fever.

Researchers sequenced RNA from the mouse brain and used fluorescent imaging to identify the most active neurons during disease. They suspected that the hypothalamus might have neurons that were involved in the regulation of the symptoms of the disease. “There is all the control of appetite and thermoregulation,” says Dulac.

The team found a population of neurons that fit the bill for the ventral medial preoptic area, which is commonly involved in thermoregulation. These neurons were significantly activated by the disease-causing molecules compared to the brains of non-fed mice.

To confirm their findings, the team then genetically suppressed these neurons in the mouse so that they were not activated during the disease. These modified mice did not develop fever when given one of the disease-causing molecules, but experienced a slight loss of appetite and did not seek much warmth. They were still tired, but suggest that this condition is regulated by another part of the brain.

Durac says she is convinced that humans have a similar population of neurons that control the symptoms of the disease. “The hypothalamus of mammals is very well preserved,” she says.

She also hopes that these findings will help researchers develop treatments to alleviate the symptoms of chronic diseases. “We can also use our findings to ask questions that may be useful for human health,” says Dulac. “For example, if neurons in these diseases are frequently activated (including in early childhood), do they become more sensitive to the disease?”

“One of the biggest threats to survival is infectious diseases,” he says. Marysia Placzek At the University of Sheffield, England. “When the cells of our body are infected, they begin to emit” immune “signals, but if that all happened, it’s too small and too localized. “

“This study discovered a new group of hypothalamic neurons that are activated by immune signals,” says Plakzek. “These marshall the enormous response needed to fight the infection.”

Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038 / s41586-022-04793-z

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