New study – researchers want to cure inflammation with the brain – guide

This could be a new step in the treatment of psychosomatic complaints.

Israeli scientists have found out how the brain can make the body sick and how changes there could stop inflammation as a result.

The researchers at the “Technion – Israel Institute of Technology” in Haifa activated certain combinations of neurons in the brains of mice that had no physical problems, and discovered that the rodents suddenly developed inflammation.

For their study, published in the medical journal “Cell”, the Technion scientists collaborated with researchers from the University of Haifa and the EMMS clinic in Nazareth. The mouse experiment suggests that at least some of the psychosomatic illnesses could be caused by the fact that the brain “pretends” to be a disease to the body, the researchers conclude from their study.

During their experiments, for example, they only triggered intestinal inflammation through the brains of the mice, then monitored the animals’ neuron activity and waited until they had recovered. They then re-triggered inflammation in the same location by simply activating the same combination of neurons that they observed when the original inflammation occurred.

“This suggests that the brain stores a kind of representation of inflammatory states that mice experience, and that there is a way to trigger the same inflammation,” explains neuroimmunologist and study director Prof. Asya Rolls “The Times of Israel”. Even if there is of course a gap between experiments on mice and humans, this opens up a new direction for research into psychosomatic diseases in humans.

“I was surprised to see the effect so clearly that the inflammation started shortly after the neurons were activated, even though there was no pathogen or other physical trigger,” says Rolls.

The study, which was recently peer-reviewed, is one of the clearest insights into psychosomatic diseases to date. The researchers are now hoping for the opposite effect: if the brain is able to trigger inflammation via neurons, the suppression of brain activity can lead to a reduction in it.

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