Researchers have found that natural antibiotics produced by the body after wounding can also act as long-range molecular messengers. If injured, one will come offcomplex immune responseout of. As part of this, the wound produces small antimicrobial molecules to fight off the pathogens locally.
How natural antibiotics can strengthen the immune system
The body's own messengers signal tissue from the site of injury, sending a message to increase sleep and chances of survival. The saying goes that sleep is the best medicine. In fact, studies have shown that longer sleep leads to better rest. So it's no surprise that the human brain responds to injury by extending sleep. Therefore, the research team looked at injury and sleep in C. elegans worms. These are the simplest animals that scientists can look at to study sleep. Their model, which enables a wide range of molecular biology techniques, can explore fundamental biological processes in detail. The team first looked for genes responsible for prolonging sleep in worms. They conducted a large-scale genetic screening and analyzed over 4,500 different genetic mutations.
One of the genes the research team found caught particular attention. Increasing the activity of this gene led to a huge increase in the production of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The AMPs are natural antibiotics that the body produces in the wound to locally ward off pathogens. It turns out that antimicrobial peptides are highly redundant. The scientists found that a total of 19 different genes responsible for the production of AMPs had to be switched off simultaneously to observe a notable difference. Worms usually survive injuries quite well. However, scientists observed that sleep loss increased the number of experimental animals that did not survive a seemingly non-threatening injury. The researchers were able to show that the AMPs act as messengers after they are released from the skin wound and activate receptors in the brain. This activation acts as a switch, further prompting sleep neurons to increase sleep.
Study results
The researchers were able to show that the AMPs act as messengers after they are released from the skin wound and activate receptors in the brain. This activation acts as a switch, further prompting sleep neurons to increase sleep. Natural antibiotics have long been known to act locally, but this study suggested that they also act as long-range messenger molecules to signal the need for sleep from wounds to the nervous system. These results further strengthen the role of sleep in injury recovery. Since sleep occurs in virtually all animals, interpretthe study resultssuggests that sleep may be crucial to healing and surviving injury not only for C. elegans worms, but also for other animals and possibly even humans.
