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Concluding remarks

It has been documented by many researches how body homeostasis is the result of the close, continuous, and multidirectional dialogue between nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. In the last decade, enormous progresses have been made into the clarification of the neuroimmune crosstalk, with particular emphasis on the role of neurotransmitters, brain peptides and hormones, due to their ability to spread to, and be shared by, tissues and cells involved in the neuroimmune modulation[3-7,11,22,113-120].

Since recent studies are showing that BBB is a dynamic structure and could also be crossed by antibodies[69-71,90], or there could be an intrathecal synthesis of immunoglobulins[72-75], we hypothesized that the pool of molecules involved in neuroimmune crosstalk could be expanded by the comprehension of antibodies into a circuitry that we have called immunergic neurotransmission, summarized in Figure 1. Our hypothesis is based on the evidence that many pathologic conditions are characterized by an increased synthesis of antibodies for which cross-reactivity between the “periphery” and the “centre” is very frequent. Moreover, significance of the presence of these antibodies is uncertain in many conditions, sometimes affects healthy individuals, and thus is still object of debate[89-95,103].

In conclusion, we hope that our theory, that obviously needs effective experimental proofs, may be a contribution to the development of a new research approach in which antibody production is not a simple response to non-self, but a complex effect of human evolution towards a system fully integrated in the neuroimmune dialogue.