Exploring how the brain senses infection harvardmed nature
NatureAlthough most people are sick several times a year, scientific knowledge of how the brain evokes the feeling of sickness has lagged behind research on other bodily states such as hunger and thirst. The paper represents a key first step in understanding the brain-body connection during an infection.
If the results can be translated into humans, the work could have important implications for developing more-effective flu therapies.The Liberles lab is interested in how the brain and body communicate to control physiology. For example, it has previously explored how the brain processesfrom internal organs, and how sensory cues can evoke or suppress the sensation of nausea.
The team decided to focus on influenza, a respiratory virus that is the source of millions of illnesses and medical visits and causes thousands of deaths in the United States every year. Cutting the glossopharyngeal nerve, eliminating the neurons, blocking the prostaglandin receptors in those neurons, or treating the mice with ibuprofen similarly reduced influenza symptoms and increased survival.
This additional pathway doesn't involve prostaglandins, the team was surprised to find. Mice in the second phase of infection didn't respond to ibuprofen. If the findings can be replicated in humans, it raises the possibility of developing treatments that address both the prostaglandin- and nonprostaglandin pathways of"If you can find a way to inhibit both pathways and use them in synergy, that would be incredibly exciting and potentially transformative," Liberles said.
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