Dr. Iliyan Iliev
In a preclinical study, Dr. Iliyan D. Iliev, Associate Professor of Immunology in Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, WDOM, and colleagues at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered a specific group of fungi in the intestines that can protect against intestinal injury and also influence social behavior.
This finding, published in Cell on February 16, 2022, is yet another discovery to augment the many connections within the gut-immunity brain axis. Using a mouse model, Dr. Iliev and colleagues have revealed molecular signals that connect a specific group of fungi in the gut to cells throughout the host’s body, including immune cells and neurons. Mice who carried some of this group of fungi had better protection against disruption of the intestinal barrier (e.g., intestinal injury, bacterial infection). Furthermore, it was seen that the mice carrying the fungi displayed more social behavior than mice without the fungi.
“We have made a direct link between a major immune pathway induced by fungi in the lining of the intestine and signals in the nervous system that impact animal behavior,” said Dr. Iliev, the study’s senior author and a member of the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Irina Leonardi, lead author and Instructor of Immunology in Medicine in Dr. Iliev’s laboratory, said, “We are trying to go deeper into the mechanisms of this interaction, looking at the signals that are involved at the neuronal level in different brain regions."
As the investigators look towards further exploration of the newly found communication network, the possibilities include that different microbial communities in the gut may stimulate different regions of the brain and immune system.
Contributing investigators on this study: Drs. Dilek Colak, Melanie Johncilla and Megan Allen from Weill Cornell Medicine and Dr. Rhonda K. Yantiss from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.