Peder Olofsson
Nerve signals and cardiovascular disease
Atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and excessive inflammation are major causes of disease and death. The nervous system regulates many functions that are important for good health and helps to keep, for example, blood pressure, inflammation and metabolism in balance with the body's requirements. However, detailed knowledge of how these regulatory systems work is limited. Signals in specific neural reflexes appear to influence the development and resolution of atherosclerosis. We are trying to understand the mechanisms in detail by investigating how different types of nerves, immune cells and blood vessels interact at the molecular level in health and disease. Because nerves can signal with great precision, we hope our studies will reveal new opportunities to effectively prevent and treat cardiovascular disease and excessive inflammation with limited side effects.
Selected publications
Tarnawski, L., Shavva, V. S., Kort, E. J., Zhuge, Z., Nilsson, I., Gallina, A. L., Marinez-Enguita, D., Heller Sahhlgren, B., Weiland, M., Caravaca, A. S., Schmidt, S., Chen, P., Abbas, K., Wang, F. H., Ahmed, O., Eberhardson, M., Färnert, A., Weitzberg, E., Gustafsson, M., Kehr, J., Malin, S. G., Hult, H., Carlström, M., Jovinge, S., & Olofsson, P. S. (2023). Cholinergic regulation of vascular endothelial function by human ChAT+ T cells. (2023) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Apr 4;120(14):e2212476120.
Caravaca, A. S., Gallina, A. L., Tarnawski, L., Shavva, V. S., Colas, R. A., Dalli, J., Malin, S. G., Hult, H., Arnardottir, H., & Olofsson, P. S. (2022). Vagus nerve stimulation promotes resolution of inflammation by a mechanism that involves Alox15 and requires the α7nAChR subunit. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 119(22), e2023285119.
Cox, M. A., Duncan, G. S., Lin, G. H. Y., Steinberg, B. E., Yu, L. X., Brenner, D., Buckler, L. N., Elia, A. J., Wakeham, A. C., Nieman, B., Dominguez-Brauer, C., Elford, A. R., Gill, K. T., Kubli, S. P., Haight, J., Berger, T., Ohashi, P. S., Tracey, K. J., Olofsson, P. S., & Mak, T. W. (2019) Choline acetyltransferase-expressing T cells are required to control chronic viral infection. Science, 363(6427), 639-644.
Olofsson, P. S., Steinberg, B. E., Sobbi, R., Cox, M. A., Ahmed, M. N., Oswald, M., Szekeres, F., Hanes, W. M., Introini, A., Liu, S. F., Holodick, N. E., Rothstein, T. L., Lövdahl, C., Chavan, S. S., Yang, H., Pavlov, V. A., Broliden, K., Andersson, U., Diamond, B., Miller, E. J., Arner, A., Gregersen, P. K., Backx, P. H., Mak, T. W., & Tracey, K. J. (2016). Blood pressure regulation by CD4(+) lymphocytes expressing choline acetyltransferase. Nature Biotechnology, 34(10), 1066-1071. doi:10.1038/nbt.3663
Olofsson, P. S., Living bioelectronics resolve inflammation. Science 2024 May 31;384(6699):962-963.