Polyamines in the Central Nervous System

 

 

In their interesting work Soulet and Rivest (Polyamines play a critical role in the control of the innate immune response in the mouse central nervous system. Journal of Cell Biology 162, 257-268, 2003) found a link between polyamines and the innate immune response in the nervous system. The neuronal and glial level of ornithine-decarboxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme for the synthesis of polyamines, increased as mice were challenged with systemic lipopolysaccharide. In the experiments the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (PCK) was increased too. The increasing of PCK was abolished by inhibiting polyamine synthesis, which prevented neuronal death in a mouse model of innate immune reactivity in the brain.

It seems evident that polyamines play a critical role in the control of the innate immune response in the mouse central nervous system.

 

BM&L-November 2003