NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2025-02-28DOI: 10.1159/000544748
Oceane Schmitt, Christian Knecht, Birgit Sobczak, Hana Volkmann, Ulrike Gimsa, Jean-Loup Rault
{"title":"Regular Positive Human Contacts Do Not Improve Pigs' Response to a Lipopolysaccharide Immune Challenge.","authors":"Oceane Schmitt, Christian Knecht, Birgit Sobczak, Hana Volkmann, Ulrike Gimsa, Jean-Loup Rault","doi":"10.1159/000544748","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000544748","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Little is known about the effects of a positive human-animal relationship on animal health and resilience. This study investigated the effects of regular positive human-animal interactions on pigs' response to an immune challenge.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Twenty-four female pigs were recruited at weaning (5 weeks old), and siblings of similar weights were allocated to either the positive contact treatment with positive contacts given by a human to groups of 3 pigs in their home pen or the control treatment only exposed to a human standing immobile and silently in front and outside their home pen. Treatment sessions were applied over 9 consecutive weeks, lasted 10 min per group, and occurred twice daily (morning and afternoon), 3 days a week. At 16 weeks of age, pigs were submitted to an immune challenge, which consisted of a single intravenous administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 2 µg/kg). The sickness behaviours of pigs were observed using scan sampling every 5 min over 6 h post-administration, recording somnolence, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramping, shivering, and panting. Blood samples were taken before the LPS administration, after 1 h and 3 h. Blood plasma was analysed to quantify tumour necrosis factor alpha, interleukins 6 and 10, immunoglobulin A, and cortisol concentrations, and blood serum was analysed to quantify a brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Behavioural and physiological data were statistically analysed using general linear models in R.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both treatments showed signs of sickness behaviour following LPS administration, but the two treatments did not differ in the frequency, severity of sickness behaviours, or length of recovery or in the blood plasma concentration of cytokines and cortisol measured.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Therefore, regular exposure to positive contacts with a human over several weeks, although leading to the development of a positive human-animal relationship, did not enhance the pigs' response to this immune challenge or the immune parameters measured in this study.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"83-93"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143537454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2025-03-28DOI: 10.1159/000544833
Katharina Strecker, Eun-Jin Sim, Kathrin Woike, Carlos Schönfeldt-Lecuona, Peter Radermacher, Alexander Karabatsiakis, Markus Kiefer
{"title":"Association of the Biopsychosocial Factors Adverse Childhood Experiences, Adult Attachment Style, Emotion Regulation, and Mitochondrial Density in Immune Cells with Major Depressive Disorder.","authors":"Katharina Strecker, Eun-Jin Sim, Kathrin Woike, Carlos Schönfeldt-Lecuona, Peter Radermacher, Alexander Karabatsiakis, Markus Kiefer","doi":"10.1159/000544833","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000544833","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders associated with various negative impacts such as lower overall quality of life, increased morbidity risk, and even premature mortality. According to the biopsychosocial model of health and disease, multiple factors contribute to the development and manifestation of MDD. Here, we assessed preselected social, psychological, and biological variables and tested their power to predict MDD diagnosis using logistic regression models.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In 24 patients with current MDD diagnosis and 35 healthy control participants, the following variables were measured to test for associations with MDD diagnosis: (1) emotional neglect and adult attachment style as social variables, (2) thought suppression and cognitive reappraisal as psychological variables, and (3) mitochondrial density (citrate synthase activity as a surrogate marker of mitochondrial density) measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as a biological variable.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The following biopsychosocial variables were associated with MDD diagnosis. Participants with greater emotional neglect (OR: 1.273, 95% CI: 1.059-1.645), higher levels of intrusive thoughts (OR: 1.738, 95% CI: 1.282-3.066), and decreased mitochondrial density in PBMCs (OR: 0.298, 95% CI: 0.083-0.784) had a higher probability of belonging to the MDD group.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In line with biopsychosocial models of depression, the present results indicate that variables at different levels of analysis are conjointly related to MDD. These findings open new perspectives for the diagnosis and treatment of MDD, but they need to be replicated in larger samples in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"110-123"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143753699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2024-11-27DOI: 10.1159/000542676
Sonja Entringer, Christine Heim
{"title":"A Brief Historic Review of Research on Early Life Stress and Inflammation across the Lifespan.","authors":"Sonja Entringer, Christine Heim","doi":"10.1159/000542676","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000542676","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Extensive evidence from animal and human studies indicates that exposure to stress during sensitive developmental periods significantly increases the risk for psychiatric and physical disorders, resulting in reduced longevity. Chronic immune activation has been suggested as one pathway through which early adverse experiences may become biologically embedded. This paper highlights selected key findings and questions that first emerged in the literature and founded the field and then examines how research methods and questions have evolved over time.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>During the past decades, evidence from preclinical, clinical, and epidemiological studies has accumulated suggesting consequences of early life stress (ELS) exposure for immune function, particularly increased chronic inflammation or inflammatory responses. Scientific approaches to study the effects of ELS on the immune system have changed since the first studies on this topic were published.</p><p><strong>Key messages: </strong>Across different study designs, species, and methods, a consistent association between childhood adversity and a pro-inflammatory phenotype has been reported. We critically discuss which topics warrant further consideration and how current findings could be used to develop targeted interventions to prevent or reverse the biological embedding of ELS and resultant disease manifestations.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"24-35"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11780566/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142739928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of Sleep Deprivation on the Brain's Inflammatory Response Triggered by Lipopolysaccharide and Its Consequences on Spatial Learning and Memory and Long-Term Potentiation in Male Rats.","authors":"Maryam Salari, Khadijeh Esmaeilpour, Lily Mohammadipoor-Ghasemabad, Farahnaz Taheri, Mahmoud Hosseini, Vahid Sheibani","doi":"10.1159/000535784","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000535784","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Both sleep deprivation (SD) and inflammation can negatively affect cognitive function. This study aimed to investigate how SD impacts the brain's inflammatory response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and its subsequent effects on cognitive functions.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To this end, male rats were tested through a Morris water maze (MWM) to assess their spatial learning and memory. Also, in vivo field potential recordings (to evaluate synaptic plasticity) were done in the Saline, SD, LPS1 (1 mg/kg/7 days), and LPS1+SD groups. Cytokine levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Based on the results, the LPS1+SD group showed increased total distance and escape latency compared to the other groups in the MWM test. Besides, the LPS1+SD group exhibited a significant decrease in long-term potentiation (LTP) induction and maintenance in the CA1 area of the brain. Finally, the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels were significantly higher in the LPS1+SD group than in the Saline group.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These findings suggest that the combined effects of SD and brain inflammatory response can have more harmful effects on cognitive function, LTP, and inflammatory factors than either SD or LPS1 alone.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"12-24"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139049065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-06DOI: 10.1159/000536661
Maurizio Cutolo, Emanuele Gotelli
{"title":"The Importance of Neuroendocrine Immunology Pathways in the Course of COVID-19.","authors":"Maurizio Cutolo, Emanuele Gotelli","doi":"10.1159/000536661","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000536661","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"62-64"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139697953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-11-06DOI: 10.1159/000542401
Hugo Besedovsky, Adriana Del Rey
{"title":"A Glucocorticoid-Mediated Immunoregulatory Circuit Integrated at Brain Levels: Our Early Studies and a Present View.","authors":"Hugo Besedovsky, Adriana Del Rey","doi":"10.1159/000542401","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000542401","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>It was known since the 1940s that pharmacological administration of glucocorticoids can inhibit inflammatory and immune processes, and these hormones are still today among the most widely used therapeutic tools to treat diseases with immune components. However, it became clear later that endogenous glucocorticoids can either support or restrain immune processes.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Early studies showed that (a) endogenous levels of glucocorticoids can modulate immune cell activity; (b) the immune response itself can stimulate the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to release glucocorticoids to levels that can exert immunoregulatory effects; (c) immune products, later identified as cytokines, mediate this effect. On these bases, the existence of a glucocorticoid-mediated immunoregulatory circuit was proposed. It was also shown that increased levels of endogenous glucocorticoids exert protective effects during infections and other diseases with immune components. However, it was found in animal models and in humans that these effects can be blunted in several immune-linked diseases by defects at several levels, for example, by glucocorticoid resistance or by adrenal insufficiency. Evidence was later provided that the glucocorticoid-mediated immunoregulatory circuit can also be activated by cytokines produced not only as consequence of immune stimulation but also following psycho/sensorial and physical stimuli. Thus, this circuit can be integrated at brain levels and, besides stimulating the HPA axis, cytokines can also affect synaptic plasticity, most likely via a tripartite synapse, with astrocytes as neuro-immune cells acting as the third component.</p><p><strong>Key messages: </strong>It is now well established that the glucocorticoid-mediated immunoregulatory circuit plays a central role in maintaining health. However, several variables can condition the efficacy of the effect of endogenous glucocorticoids. Furthermore, since cytokines and other immune products have many other neuroendocrine and metabolic effects, other neuroendocrine-immune circuits could simultaneously operate or become predominant during different pathologies. The consideration of these aspects might help to implement strategies to eventually decrease therapeutic doses of exogenous glucocorticoids.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"230-245"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142591173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-06-22DOI: 10.1159/000539991
Iota Anastassis, Jan Pieter Konsman
{"title":"Causal Histories of Psychological Factors and Cancer: From Psychosomatic Medicine to Neuroimmunomodulation.","authors":"Iota Anastassis, Jan Pieter Konsman","doi":"10.1159/000539991","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000539991","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Establishing causal relationships is essential in biology and medicine. However, various notions of causality have been operationalized at different times in various fields of the life and health sciences. While this is expected from a history or sociology of science point of view, as different accounts may correspond to what is valued in terms of establishing causal relationships at different times as well as in different fields of biology and medicine, this may come as a surprise for a present-day actor in those fields. If, over time, causal accounts have not been fully dismissed, then they are likely to invite some form of, potentially salutary, explanatory pluralism.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>In the decades following WWII, psychosomatic medicine could propose that psychological factors cause somatic diseases. But today, most medicine has to meet the standard of a randomized clinical trial before any causal relationship can be proposed. Instead, in biology, mechanisms seem to be the most-valued causal discourse to explain how phenomena of interest are brought about. Here, the focus will be on how psychoneuroimmunology, an interdisciplinary research field addressing interactions between the nervous system and immune system, and between behavior and health, has considered causal relationships between psychological factors and cancer.</p><p><strong>Key messages: </strong>When it comes to causal explanations of links between psychological factors and cancer, psychoneuroimmunology is invited to consider the question of the directionality of these links as well as what and how factors causally contribute to cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"143-156"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141458362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroimmunomodulationPub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1159/000540959
Rainer H Straub, Maurizio Cutolo
{"title":"A History of Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine Immune Interactions in Rheumatic Diseases.","authors":"Rainer H Straub, Maurizio Cutolo","doi":"10.1159/000540959","DOIUrl":"10.1159/000540959","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>All active scientists stand on the shoulders of giants and many other more anonymous scientists, and this is not different in our field of psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology in rheumatic diseases. Too often, the modern world of publishing forgets about the collective enterprise of scientists. Some journals advise the authors to present only literature from the last decade, and it has become a natural attitude of many scientists to present only the latest publications. In order to work against this general unempirical behavior, neuroimmunomodulation devotes the 30th anniversary issue to the history of medical science in psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>Keywords were derived from the psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology research field very well known to the authors (R.H.S. has collected a list of keywords since 1994). We screened PubMed, the Cochran Library of Medicine, Embase, Scopus database, and the ORCID database to find relevant historical literature. The Snowballing procedure helped find related work. According to the historical appearance of discoveries in the field, the order of presentation follows the subsequent scheme: (1) the sensory nervous system, (2) the sympathetic nervous system, (3) the vagus nerve, (4) steroid hormones (glucocorticoids, androgens, progesterone, estrogens, and the vitamin D hormone), (5) afferent pathways involved in fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, and depression (includes pathophysiology), and (6) evolutionary medicine and energy regulation - an umbrella theory.</p><p><strong>Key messages: </strong>A brief history on psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology cannot address all relevant aspects of the field. The authors are aware of this shortcoming. The reader must see this review as a viewpoint through the biased eyes of the authors. Nevertheless, the text gives an overview of the history in psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology of rheumatic diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":19133,"journal":{"name":"Neuroimmunomodulation","volume":" ","pages":"183-210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142018157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}