Neuro-immunology, cytokines, infection/inflammation

Numerous insults to the brain, such as head injury, stroke, and infections, as well as diseases including Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer Disease, are associated with increased levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1). For many years now, Giamal N. Luheshi, PhD, has been investigating how IL-1 is involved in the initiation and progression of the inflammatory events associated with some of these brain disorders.

Giamal N. Luheshi joined the Douglas Institute Research Centre in 2000 with the aim to investigate the mechanisms of action of brain IL-1 in response to systemic infection, inflammation or injury, as well as to examine the role of cytokines in the development and progression of mental illness. For his third major line of research, Giamal N. Luheshi continues to extend his recent novel and highly significant findings, which demonstrated for the first time an association between levels of brain IL-1 and the appetite-suppressing hormone, leptin.

Studying the mechanisms of action of brain IL-1, and how it interacts with other cytokines, will improve our understanding of its role in brain inflammation and, consequently, should provide us with an important target for therapeutic intervention in certain brain diseases.

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