Listening to your gut: immune challenge to the gut sensitizes body wall nociception in the caterpillar Manduca sexta.

ABSTRACT: Immune-nociceptor connections are found in animals across phyla. Local inflammation and/or damage results in increased nociceptive sensitivity of the affected area. However, in mammals, immune responses far from peripheral nociceptors, such as immune responses in the gut, produce a general increase in peripheral nociceptive sensitivity. This phenomenon has not, to our knowledge, been found in other animal groups. We found that consuming heat-killed pathogens reduced the tactile force needed to induce a defensive strike in the caterpillar Manduca sexta. This increase in the nociceptive sensitivity of the body wall is probably part of the reconfiguration of behaviour and physiology that occurs during an immune response (e.g. sickness behaviour). This increase may help enhance anti-predator b

SUBMITTER: Adamo SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6790387 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature