From: bulldog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Scientists find link between brain & immune system to fight Alzheimer's,   
   autism    
      
      
   Published time: June 05, 2015 21:41    
   Tags    
   Health, Science, USA    
      
      
      
   A major discovery by US researchers - previously unidentified vessels that   
   directly connect the brain with the immune system - could aid in studying and   
   finding treatment to such neurological diseases, as autism, multiple   
   sclerosis, or Alzheimer's.    
      
   Read more    
   World's first biolimb: Scientists create living, functioning rat leg    
   "Overturning decades of textbook teaching" with a breakthrough in human body   
   mapping, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have   
   identified vessels in the lymphatic system that were previously not thought to   
   exist. The results of    
   their work have recently been published in the journal Nature.    
      
   "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 peripheral    
   immune system through meningeal lymphatic vessels," said the study's lead   
   author Jonathan Kipnis in the press 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."    
      
   Read more    
   Poor sleep could increase risk of developing Alzheimer's - study    
   "We believe that for every neurological disease that has an immune component   
   to it, these vessels may play a major role," Kipnis added. "Hard to imagine   
   that these vessels would not be involved in a [neurological] disease with an   
   immune component."    
      
   A postdoctoral fellow in Kipnis' lab, Antoine Louveau worked on the mouse   
   brain, studying meninges - the membranes within the skull cup. He noticed   
   vessel-like patterns and found out that they belonged to the lymphatic system.    
      
   Kipnis described them as "very well hidden". "It's so close to the blood   
   vessel, you just miss it," he said. "If you don't know what you're after, you   
   just miss it."    
      
   Read more    
   Neurons for Algernon: Scientists restore memories in amnesic mice, hope to   
   help humans    
   Now the scientists can suggest theories explaining complex brain diseases. "In   
   Alzheimer's, there are accumulations of big protein chunks in the brain,"   
   Kipnis said. "We think they may be accumulating in the brain because they're   
   not being efficiently    
   removed by these vessels."    
      
   According to the team, the discovery could completely change our views on   
   neuro-immune interaction by linking mental health with the state of the immune   
   system.    
      
   "The connections described are between the coverings of the brain and the   
   immune system, rather than the brain itself and the immune system. The   
   methodology is very impressive, but the findings need to be interpreted with   
   caution in the context of    
   diseases affecting the brain tissue itself," Roxana Carare, an associate   
   professor of cerebrovascular ageing at the University of Southampton, told the   
   Guardian.    
      
      
   http://rt.com/news/265357-brain-immune-system-vessels/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)