Brain scientists have discovered which nerve cells in mice influence motion sickness. This could lead to the development of new medications to prevent motion sickness.
Certain nerve cells in mice determine whether the animals suffer from motion sickness. If the same applies to humans, it could lead to new ways to treat the condition.
Car sickness and seasickness, among others, are forms of travel sickness. It occurs when your eyes perceive a movement differently than your vestibular system. The vestibular system consists of structures in your inner ear that detect how your body moves through space – whether forward, backward or sideways. If your brain receives conflicting information from your eyes and vestibular system – such as during a car or boat trip – you may experience nausea, dizziness or unsteadiness.
READ ALSO
‘During cardiac arrest, the heart is overactive’
Thirty years ago, cardiologist Arthur Wilde at Amsterdam UMC was at the forefront of the search for genetic causes of …
Nerve cells
It is still unclear how motion sickness arises in the brain. Neuroscientist Albert Quintana from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and his colleagues wanted to find out more about this. They examined nerve cells in the vestibular organs of mice. They looked specifically at a particular set of nerve cells that had previously been shown to play a role in balance. The research has been published in the scientific journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers activated this specific group of nerve cells in seven mice. They did this using a technique that can switch cells on and off with light. They looked to see whether the rodents ate less and moved less in their cage – indicators of the symptoms of motion sickness.
They saw that the mice with activated nerve cells covered a third less distance in half an hour than mice without activated nerve cells. Activating the nerve cells also caused the mice to eat less. According to the researchers, this could be a result of nausea.
Medicine
The researchers then performed a genetic analysis on the nerve cells. They discovered that cells containing the so-called CCK-A receptor – which plays a role in nausea – are specifically important for triggering motion sickness symptoms in the mice.
The researchers gave ten mice a drug to block this receptor. They then rotated the animals in a rotation device. Half an hour later, the animals walked three times further than mice that had received a placebo medicine. This suggests that blocking the CCK-A receptor could be used to prevent motion sickness.
The motion sickness medications currently available can cause drowsiness, which limits people’s ability to perform certain activities. Medications that block the CCK-A receptor are safe and do not have this unwanted effect, says Quintana.
These medicines have also already been approved by the European Medicines Agency for use in stomach problems. ‘So it is a medicine that can potentially be brought to market quite easily [voor bewegingsziekte]Quitana says. However, we do not yet know whether the same nerve cells cause motion sickness in humans as in mice.
‘It would be interesting to determine whether the same cells are also causally involved [bij andere symptomen van reisziekte]’, says neuroscientist Kathleen Cullen from Johns Hopkins University in the US. It’s likely that multiple nerve cells and brain circuits play a role in the condition, she says.
2023-11-02 12:49:21
#nerve #cells #contribute #motion #sickness
