Visualizing innate lymphoid cells in the mouse lymph node: ILCs (green), B cells (cyan), T cells (magenta). Image courtesy of Dr. Saya Moriyama and Dr. David Artis
A molecule best known for its association with migraines may be a key to new treatments for common worm infections as well as allergic inflammatory disorders such as asthma, according to a study from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The scientists, whose work was published July 25 in Immunity, found a subset of white blood cells that reside in the lungs of mammals and produce the molecule, called CGRP, during worm infection in mice. The researchers discovered that the effect of CGRP in this context is to restrain the main immune response against the worms, known as a type 2 immune response. In the absence of CGRP signaling, this response is stronger and the worm infection ends more quickly.
The discovery suggests that CGRP-blocking drugs, developed in recent years to treat migraines, might also be useful in treating worm infections, which affect more than a billion people globally. Just as importantly, the findings hint that future drugs enhancing CGRP signaling could be useful against common inflammatory disorders such as asthma, food allergy and atopic dermatitis, which are caused by excessive type 2 immune responses. To read more, click here.