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The cutaneous nerves can help detect and prevent infections. A new study in mice shows that cutaneous nerves can help fight infections.
Researchers at the origin of this new study, the nerves that recognize pain have an additional function. The team conducted a study on the nerves of the skin in mice and found that these nerve-recognizing pains detected skin infections and prevented them from spreading.
The results of the study now appear in the journal Cell.
The team developed a mouse model and activated pain-sensitive neurons with blue light. They discovered that these neurons developed a protein called CGRP and started an immune response. CGRP has attracted a variety of immune cells to the region. The mice received an injection of Staphylococcus aureus, a common bacterium causing many clinical infections, or Candida albicans, a fungus responsible for candidiasis.
The researchers found that in mice with fungal infection, the nerves trigger an immune response. This has reduced the ability of the infection to spread. In addition, it also prepared other potential distant infection sites to fight a possible infection.
"The advantage of involving the nervous system is that it can communicate information from one space to the other in the space of a few milliseconds, relative to the number hours or days when immune cells perform the same function, "Jonathan Cohen, doctoral candidate, with whom the lead author of the study, Dr. Daniel Kaplan, Ph.D. led this new study. They also collaborated with neurobiology professors Kathy Albers, Ph.D., and Brian Davis, Ph.D.
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