Scientists from the medical center of Beth Israel Deaconess revealed a part of the brain responsible for raising body temperature.

Selective blocking of this center, located in the hypothalamus, can become the basis for the creation of highly specific antipyretic drugs.

Previously, scientists knew that inflammation was accompanied by the production of a biologically active substance - prostaglandin E2.

This compound affects the hypothalamus - the part of the brain responsible for vegetative regulation of body temperature, appetite, vascular tone, water balance, sexual activity and t.

Clifford Saper and his colleagues set out to establish a specific area of ??the hypothalamus, responsible for increasing body temperature. The experiments were performed on mice, which were alternately "switched off" genes encoding EP3 receptors to prostaglandin E2. These receptors are present in many brain cells, and are responsible not only for the development of fever, but also for other symptoms of the disease, in particular weakness and loss of appetite, said Saper.

According to the scientist, in the end they managed to find a site of the brain the size of a pinhead, "shutdown" of EP3-receptors which blocked the development of fever.

The region playing a key role in raising body temperature was the medial preoptic nucleus located in the middle zone of the hypothalamus.

"We assume that everything happens in the human brain just as well," said Sayper.

Antipyretics currently used (eg, aspirin) affect all prostaglandin receptors in the body - this causes a significant number of side effects. New data allow us to start developing safer drugs that affect specific receptors, the scientist concluded..

sportzal. com.

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