Hi everyone! Crystal here for DNews talking about how the more scientists learn about

the body, the less we really seem to know … what am I talking about? A recent discovery

by scientists at the University of Virginia revealed a connection between the central

nervous system (CNS) and the immune system that had gone unnoticed for centuries. This

discovery challenges current theories about basic brain-body interactions and could throw

our current ideas on the development of some neurological diseases completely out the window!

After learning about this discovery, one scientist was quoted as saying “they’ll have to

rewrite the textbooks.”

I find results like these so exciting because they demonstrate that the pursuit of new knowledge

is a dynamic process. In the journal Nature, the scientists from UVA’s School of Medicine

reported the existence of previously unknown vasculature carrying immune cells between

the meninges -the protective tissue around the brain- and the cervical lymph nodes that

are the hubs of our immune system. This discovery was made the same way a lot of big scientific

discoveries are made: by accident. A scientist developing a new way to prepare slides of

intact mouse meningeal tissue noticed an unexpected pattern of immune cells in the tissue under

his microscope, and, because he’s a scientist, he just had to know why. In science, unexpected

results can mean big discoveries and this was no exception.

In addition to draining interstitial fluids, classic lymphatic vessels carry the white

blood cells of the immune system throughout the body. Prior to the discovery of these

new vessels, no direct link between the brain and spinal cord and the Immune system had

been found and it was thought that the brain was an area of mild “immune privilege”

meaning able to tolerate insult or disease exposure without eliciting a rush of inflammation

to the affected region. This assumption left scientists in the dark about the mechanisms

behind many neurological diseases that involve altered immunity. But now that this connection

has been discovered, there is already speculation about whether impaired drainage or malfunction

of these newly discovered lymphatic vasculature could contribute to the buildup of plaques

in Alzheimer's disease, and scientists have a new place to look when investigating the

immune attacks experienced by patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

The discovery of direct interaction between the CNS and the immune system changes how

we think about the brain’s response to injury and the development of disease. Obviously,

more research is needed and these groundbreaking results are nonetheless preliminary. But this

exciting discovery will lead to further investigation into the vasculature structure surrounding

the human brain and hopefully a more detailed understanding of human health and physiology.

On the topic of new discoveries, some scientists are finding that young blood might have rejuvenating

properties - at least in mice - but they’re still trying to figure out why. Julia has

more in this video