Topic: IL-4

Alcohol use represents a significant health concern, accounting for 4.5% of global disease burden. Only a small proportion of individuals develop persistent alcohol used disorder though. With current pharmacotherapies largely unsatisfying, discovering novel alternatives to prevent alcohol use disorder becomes a priority. Hence, identifying biological markers predicting vulnerability to develop excessive alcohol consumption may lead to real improvement of clinical care. Converging evidence suggests that gut microbiota is capable of influencing immunity, brain and behavior. We thus investigated

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the central nervous system and play a vital role in cytoprotection by maintaining brain homeostasis via direct interaction and/or secretion of molecules and vesicles with neurons, other brain cells, and even themselves. Extracellular vesicles are involved in cell-to-cell communication by transporting bioactive molecules, such as miRNAs, to recipient cells. microRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that contribute to gene expression by silencing mRNAs, and it has been demonstrated that the content of the small extracellular vesicles includes miRNAs.