Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

Discovery opens new approaches to neurological diseases

Carolyn Brown
CMAJ August 11, 2015 187 (11) E332; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-5100
Carolyn Brown
Ottawa, Ont.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

The serendipitous discovery of lymphatic vessels in the brain is a key piece of the puzzle in understanding immune processes in the nervous system, and will shed new light on the causes and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer disease, Huntington disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

“Every textbook that has ever been written will say there is no lymphatic system in the brain,” explains principal author Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He says his discovery changes that. The paper was published June 1 in Nature.

The discovery was a complete surprise to Louveau and his colleagues. While researching immune cells in the meninges, Louveau dissected entire mouse meninges. If he had cut the meninges, he believes he would never have found the lymphatic vessels. As it was, on imaging Louveau saw “immune cells aligning to a vascular structure that was not part of the cardiovascular system. We realized that the vessels that we saw were indeed lymphatic vessels.” He believes that this basic physiological discovery had gone unnoticed to this point because of the unusual location of the lymphatic vessels.

Craig Moore, a neuroscience researcher at Memorial University of Newfoundland, agrees that this is “the most convincing evidence that [lymphatic] vessels are present in the mammalian brain.” For the past decade, researchers have known that there is some type of “glymphatic” system involving glial cells that drains harmful molecules from the brain, Moore explains. “This paper provides compelling evidence for how this glymphatic system actually works.”

Researchers have known that inflammation occurs in the brain, causing cells to respond by releasing cytokines and other soluble proteins that can damage the brain. “So there obviously has to be a mechanism to drain these products so they are eliminated from the brain,” says Moore. The question was how.

Figure

Researchers have identified meningeal lymphatic vessels (red) around the meningeal blood vasculature (green).

Image courtesy of University of Virginia Health System

This question is a critical one in neurodegenerative diseases. Moore says that in MS, for example, researchers have been looking at meningeal inflammation that leads to the demyelination of nerves. “Maybe in MS the glymphatic system is not functioning and these [products of inflammation] are not draining,” he explains. He says there is a current debate over whether the harmful molecules that fail to drain are creating “follicle-like structures” thought to affect the brains of patients with MS.

Louveau says his team believes the discovery will open new avenues not only for understanding the causes of neurological diseases but also for novel therapies. “Basically we know that there is a lymphatic system, and this might change how we see those neurological diseases.”

Moore agrees. “In neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Huntington’s, you need a functioning glymphatic system to remove those molecules from the brain.” He believes creating drugs to restore the functioning of this system would help, regardless of the cause of the disease.

Although this study was in mice — the small brain size helped with visualizing the vessels — researchers believe it is a feature of all mammal brains. Louveau’s team is now “actively tracing those structures in humans” using recent cadavers. Moore also says work remains to be done to confirm the finding in the human nervous system. He plans to try to replicate the finding in his own work.

He says that the discovery will influence his research, making him more aware of lymphatic vessels while dissecting the delicate structures of the meninges.

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 187 (11)
CMAJ
Vol. 187, Issue 11
11 Aug 2015
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Discovery opens new approaches to neurological diseases
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Discovery opens new approaches to neurological diseases
Carolyn Brown
CMAJ Aug 2015, 187 (11) E332; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5100

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Discovery opens new approaches to neurological diseases
Carolyn Brown
CMAJ Aug 2015, 187 (11) E332; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5100
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • The evolving picture of long COVID
  • When are shared decisions false choices?
  • Q&A: As a doctor in a war zone “you have to come to grips with your limitations”
Show more News

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • Neurology
    • Research methods & statistics

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2022, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire