Brain structure reinforces immunity

For the first time researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the school of veterinary medicine has developed a real-time image of the human body's immune response to parasitic infections in the brain.

These findings provide unexpected insights into how immune cells are controlled in the brain, and are important for treating any inflammation that affects Brain.

Toxoplasma, a common parasite in humans, is found in the brain of about 30% of the population. However, because the brain lacks the lymphatic system for the immune response and the blood-brain barrier that limits the entry of antibodies, scientists have found that this creates special challenges for the system. Immunity to infection control. Therefore, little is known about the processes by which T cells enter the nervous system when infected with toxoplasmosis, or how the immune system controls this parasite.

Immune reaction in humans. (Photo: niaid.nih.gov)

In this study, researchers investigated how the immune system can control infection in the brain. Using an advanced two-photon microscope that enables the observation of T cells in the brain, Chris Hunter's laboratory focuses on studying CD8 + T-impact cells in toxoplasma encephalitis.

Main author Emma Wilson said: 'We found that the movement of T cells is closely related to the fibrous system in the brain. These structures do not appear in normal brain tissue. '

Hunter, a professor and head of the Department of Pathology at Penn Vet, said: 'This observation shows that in the brain special structures are stimulated by inflammation that has guided the invasion of T cells. in the immune environment and allow them to perform the 'search and destroy' process necessary to search for abnormal cells or bacteria in the brain. '

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Commonwealth. The authors of the study included Wilson, currently in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of California, Riverside; Tajie H. Harris, Beena John, Elia Tait, Marion Pepper and Hunter of the Department of Pathology at Penn Vet; Wolfgang Weninger, Paulus Mrass and E. John Wherry of the Wistar Institute (Weninger and Mrass currently work at the Centenary Cancer and Cell Biology Institute in Sydney); Florence Dzierzinski belongs to the Institute of Parasitology, McGill University; Philip G. Haydon of the Department of Neuroscience at Tufts University; Gregory F. Wu and Terri M. Laufer of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; and David Roos of the Department of Biology at Penn.