title: Studying brain-regulation of immunity with optogenetics and chemogenetics; A new experimental platform.
abstract: The interactions between the brain and the immune system are bidirectional. Nevertheless, we have far greater understanding of how the immune system affects the brain than how the brain affects immunity. New technological developments such as optogenetics and chemogenetics (using DREADDs; Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs) can bridge this gap in our understanding, as they enable an unprecedented mechanistic and systemic analysis of the communication between the brain and the immune system. In this review, we discuss new experimental approaches for revealing neuronal circuits that can participate in regulation of immunity. In addition, we discuss methods, specifically optogenetics and chemogenetics, that enable targeted neuronal manipulation to reveal how different brain regions affect immunity. We describe how these techniques can be used as an experimental platform to address fundamental questions in psychoneuroimmunology and to understand how neuronal circuits associate with different psychological states can affect physiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Medical School, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Tamar
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ben-Shaanan
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Medical School, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schiller
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Medical School, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: rolls@tx.technion.ac.il.
authors.forename: Asya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rolls
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D015198:Designer Drugs / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D062308:Optogenetics / Q000639:trends*; D012107:Research Design; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D015198:Designer Drugs
keywords: Brain; Chemogenetics; DREADDs; Immune; Neuroimmunology; Optogentics; Positive; Reward; Sympathetic nervous system