It is thanks to pain-sensing nerves on our skin that we feel pain when we get pricked or when we pinch ourselves. But apparently, that is not the only thing that they do. According to a surprising discovery made by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, these nerves also help in fighting skin infections and in preventing their spread, which suggests a new type of immunity. The study can be read in the journal Cell.
“These pain-sensing nerves can detect pathogens, and for the first time, we’ve shown that they activate an immune response and also signal protective immunity in sites adjacent to the infection,” said Daniel Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology and immunology at Pitt’s School of Medicine and the senior author of the study. “This demonstrates that the immune and nervous systems work synergistically for host defense. These findings also could have important implications for developing more specific therapies for autoimmune skin diseases like psoriasis.”
More details on Neuroscience News.
(Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen/Adapted from Cohen et. Al., Cell 2019)