Watch: How some cells serve as unlikely heroes to defend the brain from viral invaders
Scientists have discovered the important role of microglia cells in protecting a mouse brain’s central nervous system from viral infections that entered the brain through the nose.
Despite entering the body through the nose — which gives a pathogen a direct route to the brain via olfactory neurons — many viruses rarely manage to cause fatal damage in the brain. Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health wanted to figure out why that’s the case. In a new study published recently in Science Immunology, they infected mice with a respiratory virus called vesicular stomatitis virus to track the immune system’s response.
