Newsletter iMM

This month at iMM we share a new work?on physical exercise and chronic stress and the news that?Bruno Silva-Santos, vice-director of iMM, was elected as president of the Portuguese Society for Immunology. If you're thinking about submitting your tax return files, keep in mind that you can allocate 0.5% to research in breast cancer.

Modulating cannabinoid signaling boosts exercise antidepressant effect

Ana Sebasti?o Lab, in a new paper by Rui S. Rodrigues, led by Sara Xapelli and published in the scientific journal?Translational Psychiatry , showed that inhibiting a receptor present in the brain, the cannabinoid type 2 receptor (CB2), boosts the positive effects of physical exercise after chronic stress.

Chronic stress is a major risk factor for depression. One of the most promising targets to counteract stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders is the formation of new neurons in the hippocampal brain region in adults, called neurogenesis. It’s known that physical exercise enhances neurotrophic factors in the brain, promoting neurogenesis. Once cannabinoids interact with neurotrophic signals, Sara Xapelli’s team set out to understand if modulating CB2 signaling, which does not have psychotropic effects, could have a positive impact in the effect of physical exercise in the response to chronic stress.

The team found, in mice, that combining the pharmacological inhibition of CB2 receptors with physical exercise improved anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors and cognitive deficits after chronic stress. This combined treatment increases the amount of hippocampal BDNF, one of the major neurotrophic factors increased by physical exercise, counteracts the negative effect of chronic stress in adult hippocampal neurogenesis and prevents inflammation.

Depression is a major contributor to disease burden worldwide. This work provides foundational knowledge to develop?future therapeutic strategies to treat stress-related disorders that take advantage of lifestyle interventions.

Bruno Silva-Santos is the new president of the Portuguese Society for Immunology

Bruno Silva-Santos, group leader?and vice-director at iMM, has been elected as the new President of the Portuguese Society for Immunology (SPI). Bruno Silva-Santos will lead SPI for the next four years, accompanied by Salomé Pinho as vice-president, who is also a group leader at the Instituto de Investiga??o e Inova??o em Saúde, in Porto. The society, created in 1973, has as its main missions to promote education, interaction and discussion on basic and clinical immunology.

Allocate 0.5% of your tax return for breast cancer research

0.5% may not seem like much, but it can make a big difference in breast cancer research.Allocate 0.5% of your already paid taxes to breast cancer research done at?iMM-La?o Hub?and be part of the future of 7000 people who are diagnosed every year in Portugal.?It does not cost you anything and is a way to?decide who will receive this part of your taxes. While submitting your tax return, choose?Instituto de Medicina Molecular (NIF 506 134 466)?as the beneficiary (Entidade Beneficiária).