The sensory neuroimmune frontier

Abstract

Sensing and recognition are key properties of both the immune and nervous systems. In the immune system, pattern recognition or antigen-specific receptors represent classic motifs in innate and adaptive immunity, respectively. In the nervous system, there is a major anatomic division between how we sense stimuli from within the body (vagal sensory nervous system) and the outside world (somatosensory nervous system). However, in the last 5 years, there has been an explosion of discoveries revealing interactions between the immune and the sensory nervous systems that govern an array of physiologic and pathologic processes including allergy, infection, autoimmunity, regeneration, cancer, and beyond. Herein, we highlight recent advances that demonstrate how peripheral sensory neuroimmunology has emerged as a powerful field that provides new insights into classic immunologic processes including immune hypersensitivity, inflammation, and tissue homeostasis.