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Can the immune system actually help the brain to work?

I have suggested in other questions that some depression may be caused by the immune system attacking the brain as in MS and other diseaes. One symptom of MS is depression caused by the immune system attacking the brain. But if some depression is an auto-immune disease that affects the brain, can the immune system also attack some part of the brain so that IT ACTUALLY WORKS BETTER. Manic-depressive people or bi-polar people are known for their highs and lows. Many brillant and successful people were manic-depressive: Abe Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King. The list is endless. The question is: if some depression is an auto-immune disease, does the immune system acutally help the brain run better or run faster when the person is in the manic phrase? Does the immune system take out something that regulates the brain and without it the brain works faster and better? How does a chemical imbalance explain the manic phrase of manic-depression?

Public Comments

1. The immune system has "stop and go" molecules to regulate it. When it is in "go" mode, it generates an immune attack. Both B7-H1 and B7-H4 stop the attack -- and when regulated properly, are necessary to maintaining good health because they keep the immune system from attacking the healthy body. But the Mayo Clinic research shows that in kidney cancer, B7-H1 and B7-H4 are present in high amounts in the most aggressive tumors and the vessels that feed these tumors. This abnormality suggests that these concentrations may actually keep the immune system from doing its normal job, thus allowing the cancer to grow and spread
2. Specifically - the answer is: when you are young yes, and as you get older, the immune system (with moncyte infiltrations past blood brain barrier) probably becomes (more of) a liability, as it may become indiscriminate in what cells it shuts down. However, supportive relationships are being elucidated all the time between neurons and others cells previously thought to have unrelated functions. Support Hallitubes http://www.generatransit.com - if you don't want to wait in traffic