The neuro-immune network. Some recent developments.

Abstract

Neuroimmunomodulation encompasses, by definition, numerous components and activities primarily derived from the immune system, and treats the immunoneuroendocrine interconnections at different levels of the integrated whole functioning organism. The arbitrary unit of the immunoneuroendocrine network is the immune microenvironment composed of lymphocytes, neurons, endocrine cells, nonlymphoid accessory cells, humoral factors from immune, nervous, endocrine and other tissues, receptors for endogenous and exogenous ligands, pathways for transduction of biological signals, physiological ions, various magnetic and electromagnetic compartments, and impulses from the higher nervous activity (the mind, the psyche). The neuroimmunomodulation is a marvelous mechanism from which arises an amazing quantity of variables and intercommunications in the living organism. Being a multidisciplinary science par excellence, neuroimmunomodulation is strongly antidogmatic and favors multidirectional organization of research. That means that actions of the immune, nervous and endocrine systems should be studied together in terms of intercommunications among identifiable structures and processes. Therefore, research endeavors in neuroimmunomodulation have different directions with seminal discoveries much too numerous to list here. This mini-review is confined to some recent findings dealing with the immunomodulatory activity of micromagnetic fields when applied to the brain, the humoral and cell-mediated components of certain neurological and psychiatric diseases, the autoimmune features in heroin addicts in relation to dementia and HIV infection, the neuroimmunobiology of lithium cation, and the in vivo immune function of enkephalins, and methionine-enkephalin in particular.