Reflex control of immunity

By Kevin J. Tracey. Nature reviews. Immunology, 2009

1,140 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Inflammation can cause damage and even death. What controls this primitive and potentially lethal innate immune response to injury and infection? Molecular and neurophysiological studies during the past decade have revealed a pivotal answer: immunity is coordinated by neural circuits that operate reflexively. The afferent arc of the reflex consists of nerves that sense injury and infection. This activates efferent neural circuits, including the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, that modulate immune responses and the progression of inflammatory diseases. It might be possible to develop therapeutics that target neural networks for the treatment of inflammatory disorders.

Subfields: Endocrine and Autonomic Systems, Molecular Biology, Neurology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/102018300acd7893209830cc2dd6c1e33924020f

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Citations in the corpus

Visceral influences on brain and behavior. (2013, neutral): “CNS sensing of inflammation, particularly within NTS, also plays a critical role in regulating the magnitude of innate immune response to infection, injury or ischemia (Tracey, 2009).”
Neuroinflammation and depression: A review (2020, background): “Peripheral, circulating inflammatory mediators also affect HPA axis activity, reaching the hypothalamus directly through the endothelium of the circumventricular organs or an altered BBB (Bellavance & Rivest, 2014) or indirectly through afferent fibres from the vagus nerve conveying information abou”
Stress, Inflammation, and Defense of Homeostasis (2014, background): “…nociceptors may monitor and control tissue homeostasis not only at the extremes of infection and injury, but also duringmore common and less dramatic alterations of normal tissue states (Ahern, 2013; Basbaum et al., 2009;Mosser and Edwards, 2008; Nguyen et al., 2011; Pollard, 2009; Tracey, 2009).”
The Adverse Effects of Air Pollution on the Nervous System (2012, background): “In addition, circulating cytokines that are released by inflamed peripheral organs or endothelial cells could stimulate peripheral innate immune cells, activate peripheral neuronal afferents, or enter the brain by diffusion and active transport thereby worsening the condition synergistically [27, 28”
Sepsis: current dogma and new perspectives. (2014, background): “The inflammatory reflex is a prototypical, major efferent neural pathway that modulates TNF release in response to LPS (Figure 2) (Tracey, 2002, 2009; Borovikova et al., 2000).”
Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders (2018, background): “As stated earlier, ACh released at the distal end of VN efferents decreases the production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α (188).”
Neonicotinoid clothianidin adversely affects insect immunity and promotes replication of a viral pathogen in honey bees (2013, background): “The inflammatory reflex circuit described in mammals is essential to ensure a neural coordination of the defense response to have a sufficient protection while preventing damages deriving from an overzealous reaction (44, 45).”
Psychoneuroimmunology Meets Neuropsychopharmacology: Translational Implications of the Impact of Inflammation on Behavior (2012, background): “For example, treatment of mouse midbrain and striatal synaptosomes with IL-1b and TNF-a was shown to lead to a dose- and time-dependent increase in serotonin reuptake, which was reversed by the p38 antagonist, SB203580 (Zhu et al, 2006).”
Inflammation in Fear- and Anxiety-Based Disorders: PTSD, GAD, and Beyond (2017, background): “Interestingly, evidence suggests that activation of the parasympathetic nervous system also can modulate the activity of the immune system via alterations in vagal release of acetylcholine from T cells (Tracey, 2009).”
Dopamine controls systemic inflammation through inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome. (2015, neutral): “Increasing evidence has shown that the immune system can be influenced by the nervous system and neurotransmitters (Olofsson et al., 2012; Tracey, 2009).”