Inhibiting brain neurons restored immune cell production in aged mice
In experiments in aged mice, inhibiting specific brain neurons or deleting a gene involved in inflammatory signaling improved the response to a flu vaccine.
Limit: The text does not report whether restored immune cell production persisted after treatment ended
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In experiments in aged mice, researchers targeted a specific group of nerve cells in the hypothalamus, a brain region. They found that aging activated inflammatory signaling in these neurons, making them overactive and disrupting immune cell development in bone marrow.
The researchers inhibited the neurons or deleted a gene involved in inflammatory signaling specifically in these cells. Both approaches restored levels of early cells that give rise to lymphocytes, a group of immune cells. They also restored production of B cells, which make antibodies, and improved the mice’s response to an H1N1 flu vaccine.
Why it matters
The work addresses how brain aging may contribute to immune decline. The authors propose altering nerve activity as a potential strategy to restore immune function in older people.
Caveats
These intervention results came from experiments in mice, not tests in people. The findings are from a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed.
- Chemogenetic inhibition of pvn-crh neurons
- Neural denervation
- TLR4
- Immune response
- Age-associated immune dysfunction
- Mice
The paper
Capital Medical University
Research Square, Nov 2, 2026, Open access, Preprint, not peer-reviewed
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