{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.01932367149758454, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.278787878787878, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
New Insights into the Shared Molecular Mechanisms of Immune and Neuronal Connections

was previously thought to be immune privileged, modern research suggests that immune molecules play a crucial role in shaping neuronal connections and affecting brain activity throughout life. In a special symposium here at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in November, investigators highlighted some of the exciting work. Lisa Boulanger, PhD, who led the session, defined the “new neuroimmunology” as an emerging field that is based on new evidence of shared molecular machinery in the immune and nervous systems. She contrasted this definition to the more classical one of neuroimmunology as the study of autoimmunity, or of neuronal regulation of immune function. “Changes in this machinery could thus affect both systems in parallel, so that a single core deficit could lead to a syndrome with both immune and neurological symptoms,” said Dr. Boulanger, assistant professor of biology at the University of California-San Diego.