402: Microbe Membranes Mobilize Microglia

This episode: Gut microbes can stimulate immune cells in mouse
brains to fight off viral infections!


Download Episode (9.0 MB, 13.0 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Streptoverticillium mobaraense

News item

Takeaways
The central nervous system, including the brain, is a protected
area of the body. Pathogens that get in can do a lot of damage,
including memory loss, paralysis, and death, so there's a strict
barrier in healthy people that keeps most things out of this
area: the blood-brain barrier. The immune system is also kept
separate, so special cells called microglia do the patrolling and
protection of the brain.

Nevertheless, microbes in the gut can influence the function of
the immune system in the brain, even from a distance. In this
study, mice lacking gut microbes did not have as effective an
immune response to a virus infecting the brain, and it was found
that molecules from bacterial outer membranes were sensed by
microglia to activate their defensive response.

Journal Paper:
Brown DG, Soto R, Yandamuri S, Stone C, Dickey L, Gomes-Neto JC,
Pastuzyn ED, Bell R, Petersen C, Buhrke K, Fujinami RS, O’Connell
RM, Stephens WZ, Shepherd JD, Lane TE, Round JL. 2019. The
microbiota protects from viral-induced neurologic damage through
microglia-intrinsic TLR signaling. eLife 8:e47117.


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