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Brain, Behavior, and Immunity Aug 2022Exposure to chronic adverse conditions, and the resultant activation of the neurobiological response cascade, has been associated with an increased risk of early onset... (Review)
Review
Exposure to chronic adverse conditions, and the resultant activation of the neurobiological response cascade, has been associated with an increased risk of early onset of age-related disease and, recently, with an older biological age. This body of research has led to the hypothesis that exposure to stressful life experiences, when occurring repeatedly or over a prolonged period, may accelerate the rate at which the body ages. The mechanisms through which chronic psychosocial stress influences distinct biological aging pathways to alter rates of aging likely involve multiple layers in the physiological-molecular network. In this review, we integrate research using animal, human, and in vitro models to begin to delineate the distinct pathways through which chronic psychosocial stress may impact biological aging, as well as the neuroendocrine mediators (i.e., norepinephrine, epinephrine, and glucocorticoids) that may drive these effects. Findings highlight key connections between stress and aging, namely cellular metabolic activity, DNA damage, telomere length, cellular senescence, and inflammatory response patterns. We conclude with a guiding framework and conceptual model that outlines the most promising biological pathways by which chronic adverse conditions could accelerate aging and point to key missing gaps in knowledge where future research could best answer these pressing questions.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Aging; Cellular Senescence; Life Change Events; Research; Telomere
PubMed: 35661679
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2022.05.016 -
Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2019The possibility that inflammation plays a causal role in major depression is an important claim in the emerging field of immunopsychiatry and has generated hope for new... (Review)
Review
The possibility that inflammation plays a causal role in major depression is an important claim in the emerging field of immunopsychiatry and has generated hope for new treatments. The aims of the present review are first to provide some historical background and to consider the evidence in favor of the claim that inflammation is causally involved in major depression. The second part discusses some of the possibilities allowed for by the use of broad 'umbrella' concepts, such as inflammation and stress, in terms of proposing new working hypotheses and potential mechanisms. The third part reviews proposed biomarkers of inflammation and depression and the final part addresses how elements discussed in the preceding sections are used in immunopsychiatry. The 'umbrella' concepts of inflammation and stress, as well as insufficiently-met criteria based inferences and reverse inferences are being used to some extent in immunopsychiatry. The field is therefore encouraged to specify concepts and constructs, as well as to consider potential alternative interpretations and explanations for findings obtained. The hope is that pointing out some of the potential problems will allow for a clearer picture of immunopsychiatry's current strengths and limitations and help the field mature.
PubMed: 30769887
DOI: 10.3390/ph12010029 -
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience Jun 2012Complicated grief (CG) is a disorder marked by intense and persistent yearning for the deceased, in addition to other criteria. The present article reviews what is known... (Review)
Review
Complicated grief (CG) is a disorder marked by intense and persistent yearning for the deceased, in addition to other criteria. The present article reviews what is known about the immunologic and neuroimaging biomarkers of both acute grief and CG, Attachment theory and cognitive stress theory are reviewed as they pertain to bereavement, as is the biopsychosocial model of CG. Reduced immune cell function has been replicated in a variety of bereaved populations. The regional brain activation to grief cues frequently includes the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula, and also the posterior cingulate cortex. Using theory to point to future research directions, we may eventually learn which biomarkers are helpful in predicting CG, and its treatment.
Topics: Adjustment Disorders; Biomarkers; Brain; Grief; Humans; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 22754286
DOI: 10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.2/mfoconnor -
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity Aug 2020The Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS) created an official Chinese regional affiliate in 2012, designated PNIRS. Now, just eight years later, the program has... (Review)
Review
The Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS) created an official Chinese regional affiliate in 2012, designated PNIRS. Now, just eight years later, the program has been so successful in advancing the science of psychoneuroimmunology that it has expanded to the whole of Asia-Oceania. In 2017, PNIRS became PNIRS. Between 2012 and 2019, this outreach affiliate of PNIRS organized seven symposia at major scientific meetings in China as well as nine others in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. This paper summarizes the remarkable growth of PNIRS. Here, regional experts who have been instrumental in organizing these PNIRS symposia briefly review and share their views about the past, present and future state of psychoneuroimmunology research in China, Taiwan, Australia and Japan. The newest initiative of PNIRS is connecting Asia-Pacific laboratories with those in Western countries through a simple web-based registration system. These efforts not only contribute to the efforts of PNIRS to serve a truly global scientific society but also to answer the imperative call of increasing diversity in our science.
Topics: Asia; Australia; China; Japan; Psychoneuroimmunology; Republic of Korea; Taiwan
PubMed: 32304882
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.026 -
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity May 2022
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Giornale Italiano Di Dermatologia E... Apr 2010The relationship between the central nervous system (CNS) and the endocrine system have been known for many years. Indeed some of the hormone secreting glands are... (Review)
Review
The relationship between the central nervous system (CNS) and the endocrine system have been known for many years. Indeed some of the hormone secreting glands are actually located in the brain. The notion that the CNS and hormones are also involved in the bi-directional cross-talk with the Immune System has been the target of intense research in the recent decades. In this manner, for example, psychological states can be closely related to changes in immune mediators, and not only they may influence the evolution of human diseases, but may in the future lead to novel therapeutic interventions. This is the subject of this review, with particular emphasis on the role of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) in psoriasis.
Topics: Cytokines; Humans; Psoriasis; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 20467396
DOI: No ID Found -
Neuropsychopharmacology : Official... Jan 2017The brain and the immune system are not fully formed at birth, but rather continue to mature in response to the postnatal environment. The two-way interaction between... (Review)
Review
The brain and the immune system are not fully formed at birth, but rather continue to mature in response to the postnatal environment. The two-way interaction between the brain and the immune system makes it possible for childhood psychosocial stressors to affect immune system development, which in turn can affect brain development and its long-term functioning. Drawing from experimental animal models and observational human studies, we propose that the psychoneuroimmunology of early-life stress can offer an innovative framework to understand and treat psychopathology linked to childhood trauma. Early-life stress predicts later inflammation, and there are striking analogies between the neurobiological correlates of early-life stress and of inflammation. Furthermore, there are overlapping trans-diagnostic patterns of association of childhood trauma and inflammation with clinical outcomes. These findings suggest new strategies to remediate the effect of childhood trauma before the onset of clinical symptoms, such as anti-inflammatory interventions and potentiation of adaptive immunity. Similar strategies might be used to ameliorate the unfavorable treatment response described in psychiatric patients with a history of childhood trauma.
Topics: Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events; Animals; Brain; Humans; Inflammation; Mental Disorders; Psychoneuroimmunology; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 27629365
DOI: 10.1038/npp.2016.198 -
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity Feb 2015The study of immunity has become an important area of investigation for researchers in a wide range of areas outside the traditional discipline of immunology. For the... (Review)
Review
The study of immunity has become an important area of investigation for researchers in a wide range of areas outside the traditional discipline of immunology. For the last several decades, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has strived to identify key interactions among the nervous, endocrine and immune systems and behavior. More recently, the field of ecological immunology (ecoimmunology) has been established within the perspectives of ecology and evolutionary biology, sharing with PNI an appreciation of the environmental influences on immune function. The primary goal of ecoimmunology is to understand immune function within a broadly integrative, organismal context, typically from an ultimate, evolutionary perspective. To accomplish this ecoimmunology, like PNI, has become a broadly integrative field of investigation, combining diverse approaches from evolution and ecology to endocrinology and neurobiology. The disciplines of PNI and ecoimmunology, with their unique yet complementary perspectives and methodologies, have much to offer one another. Researchers in both fields, however, remain largely unaware of each other's findings despite attempts at integration. The goal of this review is to share with psychoneuroimmunologists and other mechanistically-oriented researchers some of the core concepts and principles, as well as relevant recent findings, within ecoimmunology with the hope that this information will prove relevant to their own research programs. More broadly, our goal is to attempt to integrate both the proximate and ultimate perspectives offered by PNI and ecoimmunology respectively into a common theoretical framework for understanding neuro-endocrine-immune interactions and behavior in a larger ecological, evolutionary context.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Communicable Diseases; Ecology; Humans; Illness Behavior; Interdisciplinary Studies; Neuroendocrinology; Neuroimmunomodulation; Psychoneuroimmunology
PubMed: 25218837
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2014.09.002 -
Psychosomatic Medicine Sep 2012Somatoform pain is a highly prevalent, debilitating condition and a tremendous public health problem. Effective treatments for somatoform pain are urgently needed. The... (Review)
Review
Somatoform pain is a highly prevalent, debilitating condition and a tremendous public health problem. Effective treatments for somatoform pain are urgently needed. The etiology of this condition is, however, still unknown. On the basis of a review of recent basic and clinical research, we propose one potential mechanism of symptom formation in somatoform pain and a developmental theory of its pathogenesis. Emerging evidence from animal and human studies in developmental neurobiology, cognitive-affective neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, genetics, and epigenetics, as well as that from clinical and treatment studies on somatoform pain, points to the existence of a shared neural system that underlies physical and social pain. Research findings also show that nonoptimal early experiences interact with genetic predispositions to influence the development of this shared system and the ability to regulate it effectively. Interpersonal affect regulation between infant and caregiver is crucial for the optimal development of these brain circuits. The aberrant development of this shared neural system during infancy, childhood, and adolescence may therefore ultimately lead to an increased sensitivity to physical and social pain and to problems with their regulation in adulthood. The authors critically review translational research findings that support this theory and discuss its clinical and research implications. Specifically, the proposed theory and research review suggest that psychotherapeutic and/or pharmacological interventions that foster the development of affect regulation capacities in an interpersonal context will also serve to more effectively modulate aberrantly activated neural pain circuits and thus be of particular benefit for the treatment of somatoform pain.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Adult; Brain; Child; Child Development; Functional Neuroimaging; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Pain; Psychological Theory; Receptors, Opioid, mu; Somatoform Disorders
PubMed: 22929064
DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e3182688e8b -
Frontiers in Immunology 2021
Topics: Animals; Asthma; Disease Susceptibility; Food Hypersensitivity; Host Microbial Interactions; Humans; Immunomodulation; Microbiota; T-Lymphocytes
PubMed: 34721443
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.782720