Neuroscience, Immunology, & Cortical Circuits at The Favuzzi Lab - Yale School of Medicine

Transcript

• 00:04If you think about the
• 00:05many external and internal stimuli
• 00:08that our brain kind of
• 00:10integrates,
• 00:11it's very hard to imagine
• 00:12that
• 00:14information about immune responses would
• 00:16not be included.
• 00:17And in fact, there are
• 00:18neurons that are distributed throughout
• 00:20our body that have the
• 00:21ability to detect immune mediators
• 00:24that are released by the
• 00:24immune system during an immune
• 00:26response.
• 00:33My lab works on how
• 00:34the brain and the immune
• 00:36system communicate.
• 00:37And for example, questions like,
• 00:40how does stress weaken our
• 00:42immune system? Which brain regions
• 00:44are involved? Which neurons? How
• 00:46are these neurons connected?
• 00:48How do they arise for
• 00:49the first time in the
• 00:50life of an individual?
• 00:51What happens when we grow
• 00:52older? And how do they
• 00:54drive behavior.
• 00:55So we're trying to understand
• 00:56how the brain and the
• 00:57immune system talk to each
• 00:59other, and how through this
• 01:00coordination,
• 01:01they drive
• 01:03physiological,
• 01:04immunological,
• 01:05and behavioral
• 01:06adaptation to the threats that
• 01:08are around us.
• 01:14In the lab, we're particularly
• 01:16interested in those neurons that
• 01:17are located in the cerebral
• 01:19cortex.
• 01:20There's the outer region of
• 01:21the brain, and it's involved
• 01:23in many cognitive functions, such
• 01:25as attention, decision making.
• 01:27And now we know that
• 01:29they also they are able
• 01:30to
• 01:31store and encode
• 01:33information about an ongoing immune
• 01:35response. They are connected in
• 01:36circuits.
• 01:38We use
• 01:39genetic tools to alter the
• 01:41DNA inside the cells.
• 01:43And then with microscopes and
• 01:45with some light and molecular
• 01:47tricks, we turn neurons on
• 01:49and off.
• 01:51And we have been able
• 01:52to see that if you
• 01:53turn neurons on, then you
• 01:55can cause allergy. So obviously,
• 01:58if you can turn them
• 01:59on and cause allergy, you
• 02:00can imagine that you could
• 02:01turn them off and reduce
• 02:03an allergy. So that's potentially
• 02:05very powerful.
• 02:08We use an approach that
• 02:09is both multidisciplinary
• 02:11and multilevel.
• 02:12Multilevel
• 02:13makes sense because we work
• 02:15at the interface between neuroscience
• 02:17and immunology, and so we
• 02:18merge approaches from both disciplines.
• 02:22And you can think about
• 02:23multilevel,
• 02:24like the level of the
• 02:25molecular level inside the cell.
• 02:26So genes,
• 02:28proteins, how do they interact,
• 02:30and how do they change
• 02:31cellular behavior? So the second
• 02:33level would be the level
• 02:34of a cell.
• 02:35And the third level, how
• 02:37cells interact
• 02:38as a population
• 02:40and talk to each other.
• 02:41And then how the activity
• 02:43of what we call neuronal
• 02:44circuits
• 02:45impacts behavior.
• 02:52This can
• 02:53lead to the identification of
• 02:55bidirectional
• 02:56therapeutic point.
• 02:58One side, being able to
• 03:00correct the impact of information
• 03:02on brain health and behavior.
• 03:04On the other side, we
• 03:05could imagine one day being
• 03:06able to tweak
• 03:08responses
• 03:09in the brain, neuronal responses,
• 03:12and that could impact, inflammation
• 03:14in the rest of the
• 03:14body. And that is relevant
• 03:16for chronic inflammation, even for
• 03:18cancer.
• 03:19And any of those levels
• 03:21that I mentioned earlier is
• 03:22a potential therapeutic target. So
• 03:23we could manipulate these neurons
• 03:25with pharmacology.
• 03:26We could even manipulate them
• 03:28in the future with noninvasive
• 03:30clinical tools.
• 03:32Doing interdisciplinary
• 03:34research is not easy.
• 03:36What's really unique about Yale
• 03:37is that we talk to
• 03:38each other. We are learning
• 03:40from each other. We work
• 03:41together. And, ultimately, that's how
• 03:43research
• 03:44leads to medical breakthroughs.