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Neuroimmunology

Waking the immune system

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 17, page 671 (2016)Cite this article

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Recent evidence suggests that narcolepsy, a disorder that results from the loss of orexinergic neurons of the lateral hypothalamus, has an autoimmune aetiology, but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. Here, haemagglutinin (which acted as an artificial 'self-antigen') was selectively expressed in mouse hypothalamic orexin-positive neurons, and haemagglutinin-specific T cells were then transferred into these mice. Hypothalamic infiltration by cytotoxic CD8 T cells (CTLs) (but not T helper 1 cells) was associated with destruction of orexinergic neurons and development of a narcolepsy-like phenotype, suggesting a role for CTLs in narcolepsy.

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References

  1. Bernard-Valnet, R. et al. CD8 T cell-mediated killing of orexinergic neurons induces a narcolepsy-like phenotype in mice. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1603325113 (2016)

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  1. Sian Lewis
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Lewis, S. Waking the immune system. Nat Rev Neurosci 17, 671 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.147

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