Immune System And Brain: New Discovery May Lead To Better Treatments

New findings published in the journal Nature show that the brain is ultimately connected to the immune system via vessels. This stunning discovery overturns what was once thought in previous decades, elaborating on the potential effects it could have on the treatment of certain neurological disorders, ranging from autism to Alzheimer's disease or even multiple sclerosis.

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine were shocked to see that the lymphatic blood vessels escaped such detection in the past.

"Instead of asking, 'how do we study the immune response of the brain?' 'Why do multiple sclerosis patients have the immune attacks?' now we can approach this mechanistically. Because the brain is like every other tissue connected to the peripheralimmune system through meningeal lymphatic vessels," said Jonathan Kipnis, professor in the UVA Department of Neuroscience and director of UVA's Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG), in a news release. "It changes entirely the way we perceive the neuro-immune interaction. We always perceived it before as something esoteric that can't be studied. But now we can ask mechanistic questions."

It was Antoine Louvea, a postdoctoral fellow in Kipnis' lab, who created a new method for mounting mouse meninges on a slide that helped to re-examine the issue. From there, after noticing vessel-like patterns in the distribution of immune cells on the slides, he tested for lymphatic vessels.

"It was fairly easy, actually," the researchers added. "There was one trick: We fixed the meninges within the skullcap, so that the tissue is secured in its physiological condition, and then we dissected it. If we had done it the other way around, it wouldn't have worked."

He and colleagues noticed "vessel-like patterns" in the immune cells on the slides, showing lymphatic vessels and raising the discovery of questions on how the brain works and what occurs in cases of certain neurological diseases.

"Live imaging of these vessels was crucial to demonstrate their function, and it would not be possible without collaboration with Tajie Harris," Kipnis noted. "In Alzheimer's, there are accumulations of big protein chunks in the brain. We think they may be accumulating in the brain because they're not being efficiently removed by these vessels."

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