--- title: Discovery Links Brain, Immune System, May Help Alzheimer's, Autism description: Researchers at UVA School of Medicine have discovered that the brain is connected to the immune system by previously unknown vessels. canonical: https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/ author: Alissa Greenberg article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-03T08:43:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:15.305Z article:section: Health og:title: Game-Changing Discovery Links Brain and Immune System og:description: "They'll have to change the textbooks." og:url: https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game-Changing Discovery Links Brain and Immune System twitter:description: "They'll have to change the textbooks." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Game-Changing Discovery Links the Brain and the Immune System > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit? [Watch (HLS stream): Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t67dFcgw.m3u8) (2:03)  _Published 2015-05-15. Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?_ by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Jun 3, 2015 8:43 AM UTC by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Jun 3, 2015 8:43 AM UTC Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have made a dazzling discovery, [published this week in _Nature_](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14432.html): the brain is directly connected to the immune system by previously unknown vessels. “The first time these guys showed me the basic result, I just said one sentence: ‘They’ll have to change the textbooks,'” Kevin Lee, chairman of the UVA Department of Neuroscience, told Science Daily. He added that the discovery “will fundamentally change the way people look at the central nervous system’s relationship with the immune system.” The discovery of these new vessels has enormous implications for every neurological disease with an immune component, from Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis. It could open up entirely new avenues for research and treatment alike, all stemming from the kind of discovery that has become extraordinarily rare in the 21st century. “I really did not believe there are structures in the body that we are not aware of. I thought the body was mapped,” said director of UVA’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia Jonathan Kipnis, who worked on the research. “I thought that these discoveries ended somewhere around the middle of the last century. But apparently they have not.” [Read more at Science Daily](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150601122445.htm) ### See the Human Body Under a Microscope  Adrenaline crystals (polarized light micrographs) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Balancing stone from inner ear (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Blood clot (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Breast cancer (light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Insulin crystals (polarized light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Melatonin crystals (polarized light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Penicillium fungus (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Serotonin crystals (polarized light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Vaginal cancer cells (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Ventolin crystals (colred scanning electron micrographs) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/"},"headline":"Game-Changing Discovery Links the Brain and the Immune System","datePublished":"2015-06-03T08:43:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:15.305Z","description":"New research could affect how we approach everything from Alzheimer's to autism","url":"https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/","keywords":["Neuroscience","medicine","Autism","Brain","Disease","Research","health","Alzheimer's","immune system","UVA"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alissa Greenberg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/neuroscience/","name":"Neuroscience"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/","name":"Game-Changing Discovery Links the Brain and the Immune System"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?","description":"Do Brain Exercises Really Keep You Mentally Fit?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/t67dFcgw/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-15T21:17:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/t67dFcgw.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/","duration":"PT2M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3906771/brain-immune-system-vessels-neuroscience-disease/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```