The gateway reflex: breaking through the blood barriers

Kaoru Murakami; Yuki Tanaka; Masaaki Murakami

doi:10.1093/intimm/dxab064

The gateway reflex: breaking through the blood barriers

Int Immunol. 2021 Nov 25;33(12):743-748. doi: 10.1093/intimm/dxab064.

Authors

Kaoru Murakami¹, Yuki Tanaka^{1

2}, Masaaki Murakami^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Psychoimmunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Nishi 7, Kita 15 jo, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0808, Hokkaido, Japan.
² Group of Quantum Immunology, Institute for Quantum Life Science, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.

PMID: 34505147
DOI: 10.1093/intimm/dxab064

Abstract

We have been studying inflammatory diseases, with a special focus on IL-6, and discovered two concepts related to inflammation development. One is the gateway reflex, which is induced by the activation of specific neural circuits followed by establishing gateways for autoreactive CD4+ T cells to pass through blood barriers toward the central nervous system (CNS) and retina during tissue-specific inflammatory diseases. We found that the formation of these gateways is dependent on the IL-6 amplifier, which is machinery for enhanced NF-κB activation in endothelial cells at specific sites. We have found five gateway reflexes in total. Here, we introduce the gateway reflex and the IL-6 amplifier.

Keywords: IL-6 amplifier; autoreactive CD4+ T cells; neuroimmune interaction; neuromodulation; tissue-specific autoimmune diseases.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Central Nervous System / immunology
Endothelial Cells / immunology*
Humans
Inflammation / immunology*
Interleukin-6 / immunology*
NF-kappa B / immunology*

Substances

Interleukin-6
NF-kappa B