Agnes Nad­jar 

Title

Neu­roim­mune mech­a­nisms in meta­bol­ic resilience 

Abstrat

Over the course of evo­lu­tion, female mam­mals have devel­oped excep­tion­al meta­bol­ic flex­i­bil­i­ty, enabling them to sus­tain repro­duc­tion even in times of food scarci­ty and to opti­mize ener­gy uti­liza­tion while sup­port­ing the high demands of fetal devel­op­ment. This adapt­abil­i­ty pro­vides women with a unique abil­i­ty to main­tain ener­gy bal­ance across vary­ing phys­i­o­log­i­cal states, whether pro­cess­ing a calo­rie-rich meal or endur­ing fasting. 

At the core of these reg­u­la­to­ry process­es is the arcu­ate nucle­us of the hypo­thal­a­mus (ARH), which inte­grates hor­mon­al, neu­ronal, and nutri­tion­al sig­nals. With­in the ARH, inter­ac­tions between dis­tinct neu­ronal pop­u­la­tions and glial cells — includ­ing microglia — play a cru­cial role in fine-tun­ing whole-body metab­o­lism. How­ev­er, the pre­cise brain mech­a­nisms under­ly­ing the greater meta­bol­ic resilience observed in females remain large­ly unexplored. 

In my pre­sen­ta­tion, I will share nov­el find­ings demon­strat­ing how an acute caloric sur­plus alters neu­ron-microglia inter­ac­tions with­in the ARH and the behav­ioral con­se­quences in mice. Par­tic­u­lar focus will be giv­en to the bioen­er­getic adap­ta­tions of microglia in response to excess calo­ries. Giv­en that a loss of meta­bol­ic plas­tic­i­ty in the ARH is a key mech­a­nism in obe­si­ty devel­op­ment, this work could pave the way for more effec­tive and per­son­al­ized treat­ments for the disease. 

Biog­ra­phy

Agnès Nad­jar is a Pro­fes­sor at Bor­deaux Uni­ver­si­ty and works in the Ener­gy Bal­ance and Obe­si­ty Research Team. Her research focus­es on how hypo­thal­a­m­ic neu­ronal and glial cells respond to ener­gy avail­abil­i­ty to reg­u­late food intake, body weight, and metab­o­lism. They study ener­gy-sens­ing mech­a­nisms like the mTOR path­way and the endo­cannabi­noid sys­tem, using ani­mal mod­els and advanced neu­ro­science tech­niques to explore rel­e­vant neu­ronal cir­cuits. Addi­tion­al­ly, they con­duct clin­i­cal stud­ies to bet­ter under­stand obe­si­ty phe­no­types in humans, aim­ing to improve per­son­al­ized therapies.

https://​www​.bor​deaux​-neu​ro​cam​pus​.fr/​e​n​/​s​t​a​f​f​/​a​g​n​e​s​-​n​a​d​j​ar/