Hide-and-sick: How bacteria manipulate a neural circuit that makes you sick

Abstract

Infections frequently cause behavioral changes, known as sickness behavior. In a recent study,¹ Yipp and collaborators discovered a sensory circuit that is activated by a bacterial lipopolysaccharide during lung infection and drives sickness behaviors independent of inflammation. Biofilm-producing bacteria, however, avoid activating this lung-brain circuit, resulting in infection without sickness behavior.