Neuroimmune interactions: experimental and clinical strategies

This historical mini-review is devoted to the 30th Anniversary of the research activities of the Neuroimmunomodulation Group at the Immunology Research Center of Belgrade. During the past 30 years, these scientists have contributed to: (a) the definition of the structural and functional complexity and the lymphoneuroendocrine web of the immune microenvironment; (b) the structural and functional dissection of the neuron, brain and mind by means of anti-neural antibodies; (c) the antigenic relationship among the multiple components of the nervous and lymphoid tissues; (d) the methodological and conceptual aspects of the influence of lesioning and stimulation of various brain structures on immune responsiveness; (e) the lymphoneuroendocrine relationships during embryonic development; (f) the definition of immunopsychiatric diseases, i.e., neural tissue immunologic hypersensitivity in psychiatric diseases; (g) the immunomodulating and regulating activity of methionine-enkephalin and leucine-enkephalin; (h) the correlations between associative learning and immunity (behavioral immunology). The theoretical, experimental and clinical devices created, and observations collected from 1957 to 1987 by the Belgrade group of neuroimmunologists proved to be useful for elucidation of the complex interactions between the immune system and the nervous system, and provided a broad perspective for research in neuroimmunomodulation.