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How Our Lungs Talk to Our Brain and What It Means for “Man Flu”



How Our Lungs Communicate With Our Brain

I just had to do this text for you. Not much about typical physiotherapy, but superinteresting. In the world of medical research, a recent study has brought to light a interesting discovery that feels straight out of a science fiction movie: our lungs can directly "talk" to our brain,

especially when we're dealing with infections.


This revelation comes from reserchers at the University of Calgary, including Dr. Bryan Yipp, who have delved into the intricacies of lung-brain communication and its implications for conditions ranging from the common cold to more chronic lung diseases.


What we learnt at School?

Traditionally, it was believed that when we feel sick, it's due to our immune system battling infections, with the battle signals being sent to the brain via the bloodstream.


However, the University of Calgary's research tells us a different story: the nervous system within our lungs plays a crucial role in making us feel symptoms of sickness.


But what triggers this lung-to-brain communication?

The study explores how infections in the lungs, particularly from bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli (which sound daunting but are just fancy names for types of bacteria that can cause lung infections), can directly affect how we feel.

These bacteria can produce something called exopolysaccharide (EPS), a protective layer that helps them evade our body's defenses. Interestingly, the presence or absence of EPS can change how sick we feel during an infection.


Lung Infections and 'Man Flu' Finally Explained?

One of the study's intriguing findings relates to the so-called 'man flu.' It appears that male mice in the study exhibited more severe symptoms than females when faced with the same bacterial infections.


This difference in sickness severity is linked to how sickness signals are processed and communicated to the brain by neurons, providing a scientific basis for why men might report feeling more unwell during respiratory infections.


Dialogue Between Lungs and Brain


This groundbreaking study sheds light on a new aspect of our body's response to illness: a direct communication pathway between the lungs and the brain, mediated by the nervous system.

It turns out that certain neurons and receptors in our lungs, such as TLR4 and TRPV1+ sensory neurons, detect the presence of harmful bacteria and relay distress signals to the brain.


Imagine your brain as a big control center that manages how you feel and react to different situations. Within this control center, there’s a specific area called the paraventricular hypothalamic nuclei.


Now a Bit More to Picturise It.


Think of it as a special team that handles stress signals. When your body senses stress, this team gets to work.


Now, within this team, there are specific workers called corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons. These workers are like messengers that send out signals when you’re feeling stressed. Their job is to tell your body how to react to stress. One way they do this is by making you feel certain symptoms of being sick, like feeling tired or not wanting to eat. Another thing they can do is make your body temperature drop, which is why you might feel cold when you’re stressed or sick.

So, in simple language, when your body faces stress, this special area in your brain sends out messengers that can make you feel sick or cold as a way of responding to the stress. It’s like your body’s way of saying, “Something’s not right, and we need to deal with it.”


What's particularly fascinating is how some lung pathogens can avoid triggering this communication by hiding within a biofilm, a slimy protective layer made of EPS.


This stealth mode can make infections harder to detect and treat, especially in chronic conditions like cystic fibrosis.


New Era in Treating Lung Diseases is Comming?

The insights from this research have profound implications for how we approach the treatment of respiratory infections and chronic lung conditions.


Understanding the neural circuits involved in the lung-brain dialogue opens up new possibilities for therapies that could target these pathways alongside traditional treatments.

This study, which is a collaborative effort among experts in neurobiology, microbiology, immunology, and infectious disease, represents a significant step forward in our understanding of how different systems in our body communicate and influence each other in sickness and health. It heralds a future where treatments could become more holistic, taking into account the interconnected nature of our body's systems.


So, the next time you're feeling under the weather, remember that it's not just a simple battle against an infection; it's a complex conversation happening between your lungs and brain.


And for the gentlemen out there, as the others articles out there mentioned as well, science now has a better understanding of 'man flu' – it's not just in your head; it's in your neurons.


References:

Biofilm exopolysaccharides alter sensory-neuron-mediated sickness during lung infection," Elise Granton, Luke Brown, Manon Defaye, Joe Jonathan Harrison, Christophe Altier, Bryan G. Yipp, Published: March 21, 2024, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.03.001

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