Airways inflammation may result from smoking or air pollution exposure
Lesnico Andrea/Shutter Stock
Acute air inflammation hinders the ability of mice to learn when the dangerous situation is no longer a threat, which is suggested that lung emotions and behaviors affect. Mental contact with the lungs can also help to explain why only a part of people who experience trauma later develop a traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“Many of us look at the trauma, but only 5 to 10 percent of the traumatic people get PTSD,” says Reno Sahi at Cincinnati University in Ohio. Previous research shows that inflammation, especially in the lungs, can play a role. For example, in military veterans, PTSD people are eight times more likely to have asthma.
Saha and her colleagues conducted a further investigation into the link in eight mice with severe asthma symptoms. They exposed the animal’s lungs with dust particles, which gave rise to allergic reactions and inflammation. Three days later, they kept the rats in a cage and gave them three light electric shocks.
For the next six days, the researchers returned the rats to the cage for 5 minutes a day, and recorded how long they have been frozen in fear. On average, they frozen about 40 % of their last session – double time compared to a separate group of 11 mice with no lung inflammation and was brought to light.
There was no difference between the two groups after the shock, which shows that the two created a response to fear. Still, the fact is that the first group of mice was such a more frightening day, after which the inflammation of the severe airway later interferes with the brain’s ability to identify the brain when the previous threat has passed. “In patients with PTSD, this process is not working well, which is why they have increased the memory of fear for a long time,” says Saha.
Researchers repeated the experiment in a separate group of mice with severe lung inflammation, but this time managed a drug that prevents the activity of inflammatory molecules called Intelligence 17A. During his last session in the cage, where they received the shock, these animals spent almost half the Half in fear of frozen in half the time only to those who did not get drugs.
More tests have shown that the immune cells in the brain region are known as the subforganical organ, with the receptors for the molecule. Unlike most of the brain, the subfornel organs lack the blood brain obstruction, with the strictly sealed layer of cells that prevent most of the blood from reaching the neurons. Similarly, it acts like a “brain window”, which allows to keep tabs on what is happening in the body and responds accordingly.
He and his colleagues found that immune cells in the region detect inflammation from the lungs, which stimulates nearby neurons. Then they indicate the infrared cortex, which is a mental area when the danger passes and is included in identity.
Researchers stopped this route in mice with severe inflammation of the lungs using special medicines, a technique called Camogenatics, which significantly reduced the amount of time in the days of fear.
“Therefore, in short, inflammation of the lungs, especially the lung inflammation, high cartical function and your ability to take action can affect your ability to take action,” says Saha. They say that a similar path is probably in people, because the circuit of the brain that rules fear is the same between the two species.
Other studies have shown that chronic psychological stress reduces immune response. Saha suspects that the contrary is happening: that a sharp immune response reduces psychological functions, such as recognizing when a danger has passed. The reason for this may be that the body is removing its resources from the brain to cope with the risk of lungs.
“This research is important to better understand how the body and the brain are connected,” says Douglas Wanderblat in the children’s hospital, Los Angeles. It may also be explained why their own research shows that children with acute asthma have severe PTSD symptoms. “But I think what we are learning is that this mental physical interaction is very complicated, so this is probably not the only way.” For example, asthma attacks can also affect the risk of PTSD.
Saah says that only male rats were used in this study, so the routes can be different in women as well, and therefore therefore different between men and women, which requires further studies.
Nevertheless, these results can help better identify people who are at greater risk of PTSD. For example, the doctor wants to screen children with severe asthma for mental health condition. He says it can also cause new treatment for PTSD, such as immune treatment that reduces inflammation.
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