![]() The leader of the project, Axel Brunger, PhD, a Stanford Medicine professor of molecular and cellular physiology, of neurology and neurological sciences and of photon science, has a history of research delineating the workings of neurotransmission. This may soon pay off in the form of entirely new, precisely targeted treatments for mucus-stressed lungs. Using techniques originally designed to tease apart the functions of several proteins that work together to coordinate the release of neurotransmitters, a team including a neurotransmission expert and a mucus explorer has measured and modified the workings of the pathway responsible for excessive release of a key protein in mucus. As fate would have it, hard-won insights from the world of neuroscience are now directing beams of understanding at lung disorders caused by too much mucus. Mucus secretion, although vitally important, is less glamorous, far more esoteric, and more quietly explored.īut the burden of medical disorders caused or exacerbated by too much mucus is nothing to sneeze at. It stands to reason that the obvious importance of a functioning nervous system would result in quite a lot of research attention being focused on neurotransmission. If you were to stumble on a department of mucus, your first instinct would probably be to pick up your pace or to attempt to wake up. Walk the halls of any solid medical school, and you will come across departments of neurology, neurobiology, neurosurgery and psychiatry. ![]() But there’s still a big difference, healthwise, between just enough of it and way too much of it.Īny resemblances between neurotransmission and mucus hypersecretion do not extend to the attention they get from researchers. Mucus, not so much - “precision mucus” is not a thing. To carry out their lofty job description, neurotransmitters need to be released in a precise manner. ![]() In a sense, these chemicals, called neurotransmitters, form the substrate of our soul: They guide our every cognition, emotion, motion and ambition. Oddly, the excessive buildup of mucus in the lungs and airways bears some powerful resemblance, at the molecular level, to the way nerve cells in the brain secrete pulses of specialized chemicals to transmit signals to one another. And for the roughly 30,000 Americans who have cystic fibrosis. Excess mucus also spells trouble for the 1 in 20 people who develop acute bronchitis each year. Medications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which also affects about 25 million in the United States, are even less likely to work. But if there’s too much of it, or if it’s too adhesive, it can betray the organ it is meant to serve. It’s also essential to the proper function of the stomach, intestine and urogenital tract. In the right amounts, at the right consistency, mucus is a lung’s best friend. We don’t think too much about the sometimes slimy, sometimes sticky, sometimes lumpy stuff, and when we do, we don’t think much of it. ![]() Like it or lump it, we can’t live without it. Goblet cells in the lung take the low road, squirting out rivers of mucus when they get irritated. Nerve cells in the brain take the high road, emitting bursts of chemicals in order to pass their signals from one to the next (a process known as neurotransmission). Next time it feels like you’re sneezing your brains out or coughing up a lung, consider that brains and lungs have something very much in common: They share some secrets about secretion. ![]()
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