CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Proper response to infections is a critical issue for all animals. During last years, it has been established that although the immune system is the principal responsible for this task, the nervous system has a relevant role too. How these two systems interact is an important question in the field of immunology and neurosciences. In this work, we demonstrated that the administration of an inflammatory molecule (bacterial lipopolysaccharides, LPS) into the thorax of bees causes a reduction in the locomotor activity from 50 min until, at least, 130 min after the injection. In addition, honey bees showed a loss of appetite both 60 and 90 min after the administration of LPS. 24 hours after injection animals recovered the appetite, confirming an acute modulation of behavior during inflammation. These results show that honey bees exhibit a sickness behavior, and allow us to use it as model to study how the immune and nervous system interact. We will analyze two molecular pathways that we consider candidates for the regulation of the honey bee?s behavior. We will examine the role of eicosanoids, reported as principal mediators of the immune response in insects. We propose also that there could exist an octopaminergic pathway activated in response to inflammation. The role of octopamine as neurohormone and neurotransmitter leads us to propose this amine as a key factor in the interaction of the nervous and the immune system. Thus, further studies performed in honey bees could help us to increase the knowledge about the interaction between the nervous and the immune system.