Shun Li, Florian Olde Heuvel, Rida Rehman, Oumayma Aousji, Albrecht Froehlich, Zhenghui Li, Rebecca Jark, Wanhong Zhang, Alison Conquest, Sarah Woelfle, Michael Schoen, Caitlin C O Meara, Richard Lee Reinhardt, David Voehringer, Jan Kassubek, Albert Ludolph, Markus Huber-Lang, Bernd Knöll, Maria Cristina Morganti-Kossmann, Marisa M Brockmann, Tobias Boeckers, Francesco Roselli
Immune system molecules are expressed by neurons, yet their functions are often unknown. We have identified IL-13 and its receptor IL-13Ra1 as neuronal, synaptic proteins in mouse, rat, and human brains, whose engagement upregulates the phosphorylation of NMDAR and AMPAR subunits and, in turn, increases synaptic activity and CREB-mediated transcription. We demonstrate that increased IL-13 is a hallmark of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in male mice as well as in two distinct cohorts of human patients. We also provide evidence that IL-13 upregulation protects neurons from excitotoxic death...
January 13, 2023: Nature Communications