Neuron: New discovery! Even minor damage to brain cells can lead to dysfunction of the body's entire nervous system!

11, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Neuron, scientists from oregon Health and Science University and others found that damage or disease affecting a relatively small number of brain cells may cause a chain reaction that stops the massive network of brain neural circuits from functioning.
may help explain why patients suffer temporary but severe cognitive loss in the presence of traumatic brain injury or disease.
Photo: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain researcher Professor Marc Freeman says that even so-called "bystander" neuron cells that are not damaged or sick may perceive damage and fundamentally alter the function of their cells;
, the researchers concluded by studying fruit flies, which, despite their smaller body size, are mature models of neural networks in the human brain. In the
article, the researchers focused their research on axons, the line-like parts of the nervous system where nerve cells transmit signals, and cut off a small portion of the large beam axons to simulate the damage that can result from discrete head injuries.
found that relatively small damage may affect the cut-off axons, suppressing sensory signals in neurons that are not directly damaged at all.
, a small injury may lead to dysfunction of the entire nervous system, according to Freeman, a researcher at the University of New China.
researchers attribute this effect to glial cells, which are very rich but often overlooked support cells in the brain.
glial cells are "gate dogs" for nervous system health, and the results of this study suggest that even if some neurons suffer relatively minor damage, they run out like hero Paul Revere and shut everything down.
from an evolutionary perspective, the researchers believe that this bystander effect may help preserve most of the energy in the nervous system after disease or damage.
the bystander neurons regain their vitality once it becomes clear that they are not affected.
Finally, the researchers say, our best guess is that this mechanism allows the nervous system to pause after damage, which helps the cells assess their state, and if the cells become no longer healthy, they start the process from my destruction, and if the cells are still healthy, they quickly regenerate.
() Original source: Jiun-Min Hsu, Yunsik Kang, Megan M. Corty, et al. Injury-Induced Inhibition of Bystander Neurons Requires dSarm and Signaling from Glia, Neuron (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.11.012。