In a significant discovery that could open a new door to treating brain cancer, a team of scientists has found immune structures within skull bones that may help the brain resist tumors.
A study published in the journal Nature showed that these structures, discovered by scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in mice, resemble the "germ centers" found in lymph nodes, where immune cells train and prepare to face threats.
Scientists have discovered that these structures are found in the bone marrow of the skull and are connected to the brain via tiny channels that pass through the dura mater, the protective membrane surrounding the brain.
This suggests that the skull may not just be a covering that protects the brain, but may also contain an immune center close to it, which can respond to threats to it.
Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroimmunologist and lead author of the study, said the discovery reveals that the skull bone marrow is a hub for brain-related immune responses and could change scientists' understanding of the relationship between the nervous and immune systems.
Scientists tested the role of these structures in mice with glioma, a malignant type of brain tumor.
Experiments showed that weakening the activity of these structures led to faster tumor growth and a reduced chance of survival in the mice. Conversely, activating them with three immune-stimulating proteins strengthened the immune response and helped the mice better resist the tumors.
Scientists have not yet proven that these structures have the same function in humans, but previous studies have detected immune cells associated with them in the bone marrow of human skulls, suggesting that they may also exist in humans.
If future studies confirm this, the discovery could provide a new way to target the immune response against brain tumors, perhaps through the skull and scalp, rather than some more invasive surgical procedures.
Scientists emphasize that these findings do not represent a currently available treatment, as the research is still in its early stages and the initial experiments were conducted on mice. Understanding these structures may also aid in the future study of other neurological diseases related to the immune system, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, schizophrenia, and long-term COVID syndrome.
The study was published in the journal Nature.
