AUTHOR=Marques Rafael Elias , Marques Pedro Elias , Guabiraba Rodrigo , Teixeira Mauro Martins 

TITLE=Exploring the Homeostatic and Sensory Roles of the Immune System

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2016

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2016.00125

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2016.00125

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Immunology developed under the notion the immune system exists to fight pathogens. Recently, the discovery of interactions with commensal microbiota that are essential to human health initiated a change in this old paradigm. Here, we argue the immune system has major physiological roles extending far beyond defending the host. Immune and inflammatory responses share the core property of sensing, defining the immune system also as a sensory system. The inference the immune system collects, interprets and store information, while creating an identity of self, places it in close relationship to the nervous system, which suggests these systems may have a profound evolutionary connection.