Missing link found between brain and immune system

[MSUK]

In a discovery that could overturn decades of textbook teaching, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist..... Read More - http://www.ms-uk.org/nervecells

[Youarethecure]

Every time I see something new and crazy on facebook through one of the pages I follow I come here to see if MSUK has already posted about it.

This is truly a breakthrough. If they can find a way to stop these vessels from working, how could our brains still be attacked?

Now, what does this say for the spinal cord though? Would we have the same vessels there as well?

[CureOrBust]

This is truly a breakthrough. If they can find a way to stop these vessels from working, how could our brains still be attacked?

Permeable BBB

[NHE]

This is truly a breakthrough. If they can find a way to stop these vessels from working, how could our brains still be attacked?

Now we know that they're there, I think it would be best to find out what their normal function is before the researchers try to shut them off. The potential results could be super PML or neuronal apoptosis due to a build up of metabolic wastes.

[MSUK]

Every time I see something new and crazy on facebook through one of the pages I follow I come here to see if MSUK has already posted about it.

This is truly a breakthrough. If they can find a way to stop these vessels from working, how could our brains still be attacked?

Now, what does this say for the spinal cord though? Would we have the same vessels there as well?

Thank you

[CureOrBust]

Now, what does this say for the spinal cord though? Would we have the same vessels there as well?

My understanding is that they both share the same "soup" ie spinal fluid.

[cheerleader]

I wrote up a blog post about this discovery. Turns out the brain is not so different from other organs in the human body. I also tied it into the work being done at the Nedergaard Lab at the U or R, and the newly discovered "glymphatic" system which only works during sleep. Huge leaps forward in understanding brain health.

Researchers thought they knew everything about how the brain's immune system functioned--but in reality, they were completely wrong. The brain and central nervous system is no different from the rest of the body. We now can study how the immune system works in the brain, and how these lymphatic vessels allow or inhibit immune cells in brain tissue.

But what do these newly discovered lymphatic cleansing and immunological systems share?
They are lymphatic vessels and rely on veins.

That's right. The glymphatic system which cleases our brain utilizes paravenous spaces, and the newly discovered immune system in the CNS drains along the dural sinuses.

In searching for T-cell gateways into and out of the meninges, we discovered functional lymphatic vessels lining the dural sinuses. These structures express all of the molecular hallmarks of lymphatic endothelial cells, are able to carry both fluid and immune cells from the cerebrospinal fluid, and are connected to the deep cervical lymph nodes.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/va ... 14432.html

Kipnis described them (the newly discovered vessels) as "very well hidden" and noted that they follow a major blood vessel down into the sinuses, an area difficult to image. "It's so close to the blood vessel, you just miss it," he said. "If you don't know what you're after, you just miss it."
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-06-l ... mmune.html

Lymphatic ducts drain lymph into veins in the neck (the right and left subclavian veins at their junctures with the internal jugular veins). Valves in the lymphatic ducts at their junctures with the veins prevent the entrance of blood into the lymphatic vessels.http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/ana ... ic-vessels

The implication of these discoveries is monumental. If lymphatic vessels do not have adequate drainage, due to a stenotic dural sinus, mechanical impingement or venous problems, the brain's immune system and cleansing system will not function properly.

to read more: http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/06/a ... overy.html

[cheerleader]

Also--I do not think the goal is to "turn off" these vessels before understanding the function of immune cells and the brain.
Dr. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute has been saying for over a decade that the brain's immune cells are protective, and we should not be ablating them--her research is looking more and more plausible. http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/45/17587.full.pdf
She posited the lymph connection years before this recent discovery.
http://wws.weizmann.ac.il/neurobiology/labs/schwartz/

Here she is, explaining her research in an easy to understand presentation (like a TED talk) Highly recommended.
http://falling-walls.com/videos/Michal-Schwartz-1646

EAE was never MS. Even less so today.
cheer