Description

Inflammatory processes have been implicated in the pathophysiology of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke and mUltiple sclerosis. It is now widely accepted that the brain, considered to be an "immunologically privileged" organ, can exhibit immune and autoimmune responses, and it is these responses that may in fact be responsible for many neural pathologies. The participants of the workshop VI Preface Research over the past decade has demonstrated the pivotal role of the microglia in the neuroinflammatory process, and more recent work in the field of chemokines has firmly established their important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease states. Inevitably with the wealth of research being conducted in the field of neuroinflammation comes the hope of identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention in the inflammatory process which may im- pact on neurodegenerative diseases. The meeting "Neuroinflammation - From Bench to Bedside" aimed to cover the whole spectrum of research currently being pursued in this exciting field, literally taking the participants from the bench - study- ing the importance of the microglia in the inflammatory process and the involvement, in particular, of the rapidly expanding chemokine family in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases - to the bedside - and the possibilities for novel treatment of disorders as di- verse as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).