From the “little brain” gastrointestinal infection to the “big brain” neuroinflammation: A proposed fast axonal transport pathway involved in multiple sclerosis

SummaryThe human central nervous system (CNS) is targeted by different pathogens which, apart from pathogens’ intranasal inoculation or trafficking into the brain through infected blood cells, may use a distinct pathway to bypass the blood–brain barrier by using the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) retrograde axonal transport through sensory or motor fibres. The recent findings regarding the enteric nervous system (often called the “little brain”) similarities with CNS and GIT axonal transport of infections resulting in CNS neuroinflammation are mainly reviewed in this article. We herein propose that the GIT is the vulnerable area through which pathogens (such as Helicobacter pylori) may influence the brain and induce multiple sclerosis pathologies, mainly via the fast axonal transport by the afferent neurones connecting the GIT to brain.