A study has shown that allergic lung inflammation leading to asthma could be caused by a communication between the nervous system and the immune system.
Exactly how asthma begins and progresses remain a mystery, but a team led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has uncovered a fundamental molecular cue that the nervous system uses to communicate with the immune system, and may potentially trigger allergic lung inflammation leading to asthma. Their insights into this neuro-immune crosstalk are published in Nature.
“Our findings help us understand how the nervous system is communicating with the immune system, and the consequences of it,” said co-senior author Vijay Kuchroo, PhD, senior scientist at BWH, and an associate member of the Broad Institute.
