In stroke do we even know if the dead neurons are being cleaned up properly? Or do we need to send maggots in there to do the job? Ask your doctor this simple question.
The brain needs to 'clean itself up' so that it can 'sort itself out'
A piece of research led by the Achucarro Basque Center for
Neuroscience, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and the
Ikerbasque Foundation has revealed how the brain’s cleaning up
mechanisms function in neurodegenerative diseases.
When neurons die, their remains need to be eliminated quickly so that
the surrounding brain tissue can continue functioning. A type of highly
specialised cell known as microglia is responsible for this process
which is called phagocytosis (derived from the Greek “phagein”, to eat,
and “kitos”, cell). These tiny cells have numerous branches that are
constantly on the move inside the brain and are specially equipped to
detect and destroy any foreign element, including dead neurons. Or that
is what has been believed until now.
In this study, which has just been published by the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology,
the process of neuronal death and microglial phagocytosis in the
diseased brain has been studied for the first time. To do this, brain
samples taken from epilepsy patients at the University Hospital of
Cruces and from epileptic mice were used.
Neurons are known to die during the convulsions associated with
epilepsy. But contrary to expectations, in this condition the microglia
are “blind” and incapable of either finding them or destroying them.
Their behaviour is abnormal. And the dead neurons that cannot be
eliminated build up and damage the neighbouring neurons further, which
leads to an inflammatory response by the brain which harms and damages
it even further.
This discovery opens up a new channel for exploring therapies that
could palliate the effects of brain diseases. In fact, the research
group that authored this work is right now exploring the development of
drugs to encourage this cleaning up process, phagocytosis, that could
help in the treatment of epilepsy patients.
The study was led by Dr Amanda Sierra, head of the Glial Cell Biology
laboratory of the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience, and the
experimental work was conducted mainly by the researchers Oihane Abiega,
Sol Beccari and Irune Díaz-Aparicio. Other Achucarro and UPV/EHU
researchers such as Juan Manuel Encinas, Jorge Valero, Víctor
Sánchez-Zafra and Iñaki París also participated in it.
This piece of international research was coordinated from the
Basque Country and had the participation of research groups from CIC
bioGUNE (Derio), the University of Bordeaux (France), the University of
Southampton (UK), Université Laval (Canada), and the Baylor College of
Medicine (USA).
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