The 1st international meeting on nerve-driven immunity: Neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in the immune system

'Nerve-Driven Immunity: Neurotransmitters and Neuropeptides in the Immune System is a novel topic discussed in an International meeting held in Vienna on 9-10 March 2012, and in an associated new book. Each talk in the meeting (alike each chapter in the book) dealt with the unrecognized and ignored yet very important receptors and effects of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in the immune system. The neurotransmitters/neuropeptides that exert potent effects on immune cells include the following: dopamine, adrenaline, noradrenaline, acetylcholine, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, somatostatin, neuropeptide Y (NPY), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), opioids and cannabinoids, and most probably also others. Indeed, it turns out now that: immune cells of many types express specific receptors for each of these neurotransmitters/neuropeptides; each of these neurotransmitters/ neuropeptides exert direct and potent effects on many types of immune cells, and by doing so it directly triggers or suppresses (depending on the context) many key immune functions; most of the neurotransmitters/neuropeptides are being produced, and under certain conditions also released, by immune cells; most of these neurotransmitters/neuropeptides are involved in various diseases of the immune system, among them autoimmune diseases, immunodeficiency diseases and hematological cancers. All these have wide implications on immune function in health and various diseases, and on the essential dialogue between the nervous system and the immune system.