SCI adv: the nervous system of nematode regulates the skin antibacterial immune response

November 23, 2019 / Biovalley BIOON / -- recently, researchers from Elson Freud School of medicine, Washington State University, discovered for the first time that the nervous system responds to bacterial infection by studying Caenorhabditis elegans to regulate the anti infection function of the worm's epidermis, an external barrier similar to the skin Their results were published in the journal Science advance Caenorhabditis elegans is usually used as a model organism in biological research Its structure is relatively simple, but it still has several genetic similarities with more complex mammals, including humans Therefore, this discovery is also of great significance to human health "Our research challenges the traditional view that physical barriers such as the cuticle of worms or human skin cannot respond to infection, but are only part of the body's passive defense against pathogens," said Jingru, assistant professor of the corresponding author of the paper "We show that during infection, nematodes can change their epidermal structure, while the defense response is controlled by the nervous system," Sun said (image source: www Pixabay Com) sun and her colleagues used gene silencing and CRISPR gene editing techniques to prove that G-protein-coupled receptor linked to a gene called npr-8 regulates collagen activity, which is a key structural component of nematode epidermis When exposed to pathogens that cause pneumonia, Salmonella and Staphylococcus infections, the nematodes that remove the npr-8 receptor live longer Compared with the wild-type control, the epidermis of the receptor deficient nematode remains smooth, while the wild-type epidermis will wrinkle when infected Durai sellegonder, a postdoctoral researcher at sun's lab, the lead author of the paper, said: "for nematodes, maintaining a healthy cuticle is a very important first line of defense against external damage Many pathogens produce toxic proteins in an attempt to disrupt this barrier and establish infection Our results show that the nervous system can detect these attacks and respond by reshaping or strengthening this protective structure " Collagen is the most abundant protein found in mammals The decline of collagen level is related to aging For human beings, the loss of collagen will not only cause ugly wrinkles, but also bring more problems The results of WSU research show that collagen plays an important role in resisting pathogen infection, and the researchers speculate that the neuromodulatory effect of collagen may also affect the overall life span Sources of information: genetic discovery holds implications for better intelligence, long life original sources: durai sellegound, Yiyong Liu, Phillip WIBISONO, Chia Hui Chen, David leap, Jingru sun National GPCR npr-8 regulations C elegans defense against path information Science advances, 2019; 5 (11): eaaw4717 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw4717