Sophie Ugolini The skin has a one-two punch to defend itself from attacks

The skin is well armed to defend the body

The skin is among the body's first lines of defence against environmental attacks. It has a large number of immune cells that act as a rapid response force in the event of invasion by pathogen or an injury. However, the skin's nervous system, made up of a dense, diverse network of neurons, also plays a key role in protecting the body from aggression. How do these two systems, long thought to work independently of each other, cooperate?

The immune and nervous systems join forces 

Let’s say you've got a sunburn. Your skin immune cells get straight to work repairing the damage. They produce inflammatory molecules that activate specialised neurons in the skin, sending information to the brain that allows you to feel pain. At the site of the burn, the skin’s neurons produce molecules that act directly on the immune cells. In addition, inflammatory molecules and pain prompt the central nervous system to release molecules into the bloodstream that can also modulate the actions of immune cells. This example illustrates how the immune and nervous systems work together to repair burn damage. However, the mechanisms that manage their cooperation are not yet fully understood.

Understanding how the immune and nervous systems cooperate 

During the research project funded by Impulscience^®, Sophie Ugolini and her team will aim to understand the cooperation that allows our body to detect and fight danger while avoiding excesses and fostering a return to normal. They want to find out the identity of the neurons involved in repairing skin in the event of injury or viral infection. Once identified, they will observe how the skin's immune cells manage an injury or a virus attack in the absence of those neurons. They will also explore how neurons regulate inflammation. One avenue they will pursue is the production of molecules that have an impact on immune system activity, such as the neuropeptide TAFA4. 

Sophie Ugolini and her team will use a wide range of techniques to reveal the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in responding to a skin infection or lesion and explore the therapeutic value of their discoveries for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.