Emerging Approaches to Elucidate Neuro-immune Interactions.

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Lillian Cruz-Orengo

University of California, Davis

Dr. Lillian Cruz-Orengo laboratory focuses on neuroimmune interactions at the blood-brain barrier (BBB), with the overarching aim of understanding the mechanisms underlying the neuropathophysiology of multiple sclerosis, a sex-biased autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorder. Her laboratory studies the synergism of the neuro-immune systems, sexual dimorphism, and environmental exposure influence BBB function. Dr. Cruz-Orengo earned her PhD in Physiology & Neuroscience in the Department Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Puerto Rico-Medial Sciences Campus. She performed two postdoctoral training periods at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in Saint Louis, at WUSM Department of Anesthesiology & Psychiatry-Pain Center followed by her training in Neuroimmunology with Dr. Robyn Klein, WUSM Department of Internal Medicine-Division of Infectious Diseases. She has more than 15 years of in-depth training in rodent models of neurological disorders, including trauma, chronic pain, autoimmunity, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. As a graduate student, she developed a method for the assessment of chronic pain and depression-like behavior in rats with spinal injury. As a postdoctoral trainee, she worked in the first use of in vivo sodium fluorescein permeability assay to assess BBB disruption during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and viral encephalitis and developed an artificial human BBB to assess lymphocyte migration. More recently her laboratory developed a novel method for CNS region-specific microvessels isolation applicable to the five classes of vertebrates and suitable for multiple downstream applications. Currently, Dr. Cruz-Orengo is expanding into studying the clinical implications of immune-mediated BBB dysfunction in companion animal health and its translational application to human neuropathology.

Collection Overview

The last two decades have witnessed major paradigm shifts in our understanding of the functional communication between the immune and nervous systems. The scientific community has rejected the notion that the central nervous system is an absolute immune-privileged site(as defined 70 years ago), and thus many new and exciting frontiers in neuro-immune interactions need to be addressed. Similarly, there is compelling evidence for neuro-immune interactions in the peripheral nervous system. Some of the neurological disorders associated (either directly or indirectly) with a perturbed neuroimmune communication include: (1) autism spectrum disorder, (2) Alzheimer’s disease, (3) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, (4) chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, (5) diabetic peripheral neuropathy, (6) encephalitis, (7) Guillan-Barre syndrome, (8) multiple sclerosis, (9) myasthenia gravis, (10) neuritis, (11) neuropsychiatric lupus, (12) primary brain tumors, (13) stroke, and (14) trauma. Thus, it is imperative to gain a better understanding of the immunobiology of the nervous system, the neurobiology of the immune system, and the physiology of the neuroimmune interactions in health and disease. We are in dire need of innovative technologies and methodologies to better study this system. This method collection will compile novel approaches that are used to understand the bilateral communication, interaction and synergy between these two systems. Due to the fact that complex techniques rely heavily on the skills and competence of the user, we consider JoVE to be an excellent mechanism to publish these methods in an instructive and collaborative way, facilitating the training of current and future researchers in the field.