Olfactory immunity: defending the neural-mucosal barrier

Olfaction, or the sense of smell, is the ability to detect airborne chemicals that transmit environmental information. Evolutionarily, this sense is essential for finding and judging the safety of food, mediating social relationships, marking territory, and assessing danger. In humans, olfaction is commonly thought to have a unique position in evoking emotional autobiographical experiences. As a critical sense, the olfactory anatomical organization has been highly conserved across mammals. While