Antiinflammatory cholinergic pathway: the role of neuroimmunomodulation in the control of inflammatory response

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the existence of a complex and elaborate bidirectional communication between the nervous and immune systems. The recent discovered "cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway" (CAP) has received great attention because it is involved in the maintenance of homeostatic immunity. However, due to the complexity of CAP, since it involves many areas of science (immunology, pharmacology, physiology, anatomy and neurology) , there are few groups investigating (i) the mechanisms by which CAP controls the immune responses and (ii) how the use of this knowledgement could be applied in the modulation of immune responses that are involved in inflammatory diseases. Therefore, the aim of this project is to propose a new research area about neuroimmunology/neuroimmunomodulation in Brazil, aiming to understand the functional importance of neuro-immune axis in the innate, adaptive Th1 and Th2 immune responses, which are altered in sepsis, arthritis and asthma, respectively. Based on the fact that immune cells express receptors for neurotransmitters and they are considered important sources of non-neural neurotransmitters, we will use pharmacological and/or surgical tools to alter the neuro-immune axis (with emphasis on CAP) and to investigate its effect on the innate and adaptive Th1/Th2 immune responses, using animal models of the diseases mentioned above. The understanding of this neuro-immune communication may be used in the discovery of new therapeutic targets and in the treatment for diseases involving the immune system, such as infections and chronic inflammatory diseases (autoimmune diseases). (AU)