Formyl peptide receptors (FPR) belong to a family of sensors of the immune system that detect microbe-associated molecules and inform various cellular and sensorial mechanisms to the presence of pathogens in here the host.Here we demonstrate that Fpr2/3-deficient mice show a distinct profile of behaviour characterised by reduced anxiety in the marble burying and light-dark box paradigms, increased exploratory behaviour in an open-field, together with superior performance on a novel object recognition test.Pharmacological blockade with a formyl peptide receptor antagonist, Boc2, in wild type mice reproduced most opi the color that keeps on giving of the behavioural changes observed in the Fpr2/3(-/-) mice, including a significant improvement in novel object discrimination and reduced anxiety in a light/dark shuttle test.
These effects were associated with reduced FPR signalling in the gut as shown by the significant reduction in the levels of p-p38.Collectively, these findings suggest that homeostatic FPR signalling exerts a modulatory effect on anxiety-like behaviours.These findings thus suggest that therapies targeting FPRs may be a novel approach to ameliorate behavioural abnormalities present in neuropsychiatric disorders at the cognitive-emotional interface.