{"id":3473,"date":"2026-04-08T08:40:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.caolaboratory.org.cn\/?p=3473"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:39:36","slug":"cell-%e6%9b%b9%e9%b9%8f%e5%9b%a2%e9%98%9f%e6%8f%ad%e7%a4%ba%e5%a4%a7%e8%84%91%e5%90%af%e5%8a%a8%e6%81%b6%e5%bf%83-%e5%91%95%e5%90%90%e5%8f%8d%e5%ba%94%e7%9a%84%e7%a5%9e%e7%bb%8f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caolaboratory.org.cn\/?p=3473","title":{"rendered":"Cell | Peng Cao’s Team Reveals the Neurobiological Mechanisms Behind the Brain\u2019s Initiation of the “Nausea-Vomiting” Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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According to the World Health Organization, approximately 600 million people worldwide suffer from food poisoning caused by pathogen-contaminated food each year, resulting in around 420,000 deaths. [1]<\/strong> After food poisoning, the brain triggers a series of defensive responses, including nausea and vomiting. Through vomiting, the body expels toxic food from the digestive system, preventing further pathogen invasion. Nausea, as an aversive emotion, helps the brain form long-term memories of the characteristics of toxic food, preventing future ingestion of similar harmful substances. Therefore, the “nausea-vomiting” response is a self-protective defense reaction triggered by pathogen invasion, playing a crucial role in survival.<\/p>\n

Nausea and vomiting are also major side effects of cancer chemotherapy, making them of significant clinical importance. [2]<\/strong> Chemotherapy drugs can kill rapidly dividing tumor cells but also have strong cytotoxic effects on normal cells. These drugs are recognized as “toxins” by the body, triggering nausea and vomiting as defense mechanisms to expel the “toxins.” As a result, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy suffer greatly from the “nausea-vomiting” side effects and must take large doses of antiemetic drugs to endure the chemotherapy process. Because the mechanisms behind these reactions are not fully understood, there are very few effective antiemetic drugs available in clinical practice. Only by deeply unraveling the intricate mechanisms behind the “nausea-vomiting” response can more effective antiemetic drugs for chemotherapy be developed.<\/p>\n

The “nausea-vomiting” response also occurs in everyday life. For example, pregnant women often experience varying degrees of nausea and vomiting. Passengers prone to motion sickness may also develop similar symptoms due to long periods of bumpy travel. In such scenarios, safe and effective antiemetic drugs are needed to control excessive “nausea-vomiting” responses.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, for the past thirty years, research into the mechanisms of “nausea-vomiting” responses has been slow due to the lack of appropriate animal models and research paradigms. Common laboratory rodents (such as mice and rats) cannot exhibit vomiting behaviors. It is believed that this is due to underdeveloped smooth muscle in their gastrointestinal tract. [3]<\/strong> Researchers have thus used animals like dogs and ferrets, which are capable of vomiting, for research. They found that severing the subdiaphragmatic vagus nerve effectively blocks the vomiting response, suggesting that vomiting depends on the “gut-to-brain” axis. Using these animals, previous studies have identified brain regions involved in vomiting through destruction and electrical stimulation. Pharmacological studies have shown that antagonists of 5-HT3R and NK1R can effectively suppress vomiting responses. [4]<\/strong> However, these model animals lack molecular genetic tools, making it impossible to systematically clarify the molecular cellular and neural circuit mechanisms by which the brain perceives pathogen invasion and triggers the “nausea-vomiting” response.<\/p>\n

To elucidate the mechanisms by which the brain initiates the “nausea-vomiting” response, suitable animal models and research paradigms are essential. In addition, three long-standing mysteries must be solved: First, after the gastrointestinal tract is invaded by pathogens, which type of intestinal cells deliver this crucial information to the vagus nerve? Second, what are the characteristics and identities of the sensory neurons in the vagus nerve responsible for relaying information from the “informant” cells in the gut? Third, once the brain receives the information from the vagus nerve regarding pathogen invasion, how does it rapidly synchronize and initiate a series of defensive responses, including nausea and vomiting?<\/p>\n

On November 1, 2022, Dr. Peng Cao\u2019s laboratory at the Beijing Institute of Life Sciences \/ Tsinghua University Joint Research Institute of Biomedical Sciences published a paper titled The Gut-to-Brain Axis for Toxin-Induced Defensive Responses<\/em> online in Cell<\/em> [6]<\/strong>. This study established a new paradigm using mice as a model to investigate the “nausea-vomiting” response and solved the three key mysteries, providing initial insights into the molecular cellular and neural circuit mechanisms by which the brain perceives pathogen invasion and triggers the “nausea-vomiting” response.<\/p>\n

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In this study, Dr. Cao\u2019s team systematically explored the neurobiological mechanisms behind the “nausea-vomiting” response (Figure 1). First, they established a food poisoning paradigm in mice using enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus<\/em> (Staphylococcal enterotoxin). They were surprised to find that although the mice could not vomit, they exhibited “wide-mouth” retching-like behavior (Video 1). The enterotoxin also induced a “nausea-like” aversive emotion in the mice, leading to conditioned taste avoidance of the enterotoxin-containing beverage. Thus, the conditioned taste avoidance and retching behavior in mice simulate the “nausea” and “vomiting” defense responses observed in humans after food poisoning, providing a new paradigm for studying food poisoning in mice.<\/p>\n

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(Figure 1)\u00a0<\/span>The Neurobiological Mechanism Behind the Brain\u2019s Perception of Toxins and the Initiation of the “Nausea-Vomiting” Response<\/p>\n

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