Nerve-Driven Immunity

Dr. Mia Levite is a scientist specializing in Neuroimmunology: the communication between the brain and the immune system. Her research focuses on three original neuroimmune topics: (a) 'Nerve-Driven Immunity' (a term coined by Dr Levite): The direct effects of neurotransmitters on T cell function; (b) 'Autoimmune Epilepsy' (also a term coined by her): Epileptic seizures and neuropsychiatries impairments caused by glutamate-receptor autoantibodies; (c) Ion channels in T cells and their direct linkage to selective T cell functions. She published many pioneering papers on her original findings and has been invited to present her discoveries in numerous international meetings. She did her research at the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel, and recently became a Senior Scientist Faculty Member at the School of Behavioral Sciences, within the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Israel. Dr. Levite's discoveries led to 7 patent applications thus far, providing novel platform technology for therapy of several human diseases. Some of this technology was already licensed to a drug developing company, which develops it now towards novel therapy of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Mia Levite: Dopamine in the immune system: Dopamine receptors in immune cells, potent effects, endogenous production and involvement in immune and neuropsychiatric diseases.- Marco Cosentino and Franca Marino: Nerve driven immunity - Noradrenaline and adrenalina.- Eran Nizri and Talma Brenner: Acetylcholine and Cholinergic modulation of immune responses.- Yonatan Ganor and Mia Levite: Glutamate in the immune system: glutamate receptors in immune cells, potent effects, endogenous production and involvement in disease.- Zhe Jin, Suresh Kumar Mendu, Amol Bhandage and Bryndis Birnir: GABA is an effective immunomodulatory molecule in the brain and in the periphery.- Jana Ninkovic and Sabita Roy: The Effects of Opioids on Immune Cells, Functions and Diseases.- Toomas Talme and Karl-Gösta Sundqvist: The effects of Somatostatin on immune cells, functions and diseases.- Mirjana Dimitrijevic and Stanislava Stanojevic: Neuropeptide Y - the story, the players, the outcomes.- Mario Delgado and Doina Ganea: Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide: Immune mediator and potential therapeutic agent.- Bernhard Holzmann: Nerve-driven immunity - The effects of neurotransmitters on immune cells, functions and disease. CGRP.- Radu Tanasescu and Cris S. Constantinescu: The effects of Cannabinoids on immune cells, responses and diseases.

From the reviews:

"The information presented in the book served as the basis of an international meeting on that topic that took place in Vienna ... . Each chapter begins with a description of the neurotransmitter/neuropeptide machinery. This is followed by the presentation of the effects of the transmitter on immune cells ... . Illustrations in the form of tables and figures are abundant and fully justify the didactic purpose of the book and its use as a textbook for course in immunology, neurology, neuroimmunology or pharmacology." (Robert Dantzer, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Vol. 29, 2013)