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Brain Disorders and Therapeutics
Mental Heal th and Psychology
5th International Conference on
Joint Event
&
Journal of Brain and Neurology| Volume: 2
November 05-06, 2018 | Edinburgh, Scotland
Brain against Tumor: Could Brain Stimulation slow Cancer?
Fahed Hakim
Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
The brain’s reward system, specifically the dopaminergic
neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), constitutes
a key neuronal network whose activation mediates positive
emotions, expectations, and motivation. The dopaminergic
projections from the VTA to components of the limbic system
are causally associated with motivated behavior and reward
perception. Pharmacological studies indicated a connection
between reward system activity and immune modulation,
and we recently showed that reward system activity can boost
antibacterial immunity. Regulating immunity is also a leading
target for cancer found that activationof the reward
system in tumor-bearing mice (Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) and
B16 melanoma) using chemogenetics (DREADDs), resulted
in reduced tumor weight. This effect was mediated via the
sympatheticnervous system(SNS),manifestedbyanattenuated
noradrenergic input to a major immunological site, the bone
marrow. Myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), which
develop in the bone marrow, became less immunosuppressive
following reward system activation. By depleting or adoptively
transferring the MDSCs, we demonstrated that these cells
are both necessary and sufficient to mediate reward system
effects on tumor growth. Given the central role of the reward
system in positive emotions, these findings introduce a
physiological mechanism whereby the patient’s psychological
state can impact anti-tumor immunity and cancer progression.
Speaker Biography
Fahed Hakim is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion- Israel
Institute of Technology, and the Director of the Nazareth E.M.M.S Hospital in Nazareth,
Israel. Dr. Hakim also serves as a senior physician in the Pediatric Department, and
Pediatric Pulmonary Institute at Rambam Health Care Campus – Haifa. He completed a
postdoctoral fellowship in sleep medicine at the University of Chicago, Department of
Pediatrics, Pritzker School of Medicine. And today he leads the cancer research center
at the Nazareth E.M.M.S Hospital in collaboration with the Rolls lab at the Technion.
His group focuses their research on specific neuronal networks in the brain (e.g. the
reward system) and on general changes in brain activity (e.g sleep ) and analyzes
their effects on immune activity. His research achievements have been published in
worldwide leading journals.
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