minkeygirl
But I Look So Good.
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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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"Inflammation" is another extremely broad term which can result from a wide range of etiologies. I'm interested in going beyond this.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2015 Jan 19
Sex Differences in Depressive and Socioemotional Responses to an Inflammatory Challenge: Implications for Sex Differences in Depression
Sex Differences in Depressive and Socioemotional Responses to an Inflammatory Challenge: Implications for Sex Differences in Depression.
Moieni M1, Irwin MR2, Jevtic I1, Olmstead R2, Breen EC2, Eisenberger NI1.
Abstract
Substantial evidence demonstrates that inflammatory processes may underlie depression for a subset of patients, including work showing that healthy subjects exposed to an inflammatory challenge show increases in depressed mood and feelings of social disconnection. However, despite the fact that depression is two times as likely to occur in females than males, the vast majority of this work has been carried out in males. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether females (vs males) would show greater increases in proinflammatory cytokines, depressed mood, and social disconnection in response to an inflammatory challenge. One hundred and fifteen healthy participants (69 female) completed this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial in which participants were randomly assigned to receive either a single infusion of low-dose endotoxin (derived from Escherichia coli; 0.8 ng/kg of body weight) or placebo (same volume of 0.9% saline). Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), depressed mood, and feelings of social disconnection were assessed hourly. Results showed that endotoxin (vs placebo) led to increases in proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6), depressed mood, and feelings of social disconnection. Females exposed to endotoxin showed greater increases in depressed mood and feelings of social disconnection. Furthermore, increases in TNF-α and IL-6 were correlated with increases in social disconnection for females but not for males. These sex differences in the relationships between inflammatory and socioemotional responses to an inflammatory challenge may be particularly important for understanding why females are two times as likely as males to develop depressive disorders.
Brain Behav Immun. 2015 Mar 10
Inflammation impairs social cognitive processing: A randomized controlled trial of endotoxin
Moieni M1, Irwin MR2, Jevtic I1, Breen EC2, Eisenberger NI3.
Inflammation impairs social cognitive processing: A randomized controlled trial of endotoxin.
Abstract
Neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., autism, schizophrenia) are partially characterized by social cognitive deficits, including impairments in the ability to perceive others' emotional states, which is an aspect of social cognition known as theory of mind (ToM). There is also evidence that inflammation may be implicated in the etiology of these disorders, but experimental data linking inflammation to deficits in social cognition is sparse. Thus, we examined whether exposure to an experimental inflammatory challenge led to changes in ToM. One hundred and fifteen (n=115) healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive either endotoxin, which is an inflammatory challenge, or placebo. Participants completed a social cognition task, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test, at baseline and at the peak of the inflammatory response for the endotoxin group. The RME test, a validated measure of ToM, evaluates how accurately participants can identify the emotional state of another person by looking only at their eyes. We found that endotoxin (vs. placebo) led to decreases in performance on the RME test from baseline to the peak of inflammatory response, indicating that acute inflammation can lead to decreases in the ability to accurately and reliably comprehend emotional information from others. Given that deficits in ToM are implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders, including those which may have an inflammatory basis, these results may have implications for understanding the links between inflammation, social cognition, and neuropsychiatric disorders.
This could mean there is an undetected viral infection behind these problems, or it could mean we have an autoimmune response in the cellular immune system. These two categories are not exclusive, because it is definitely possible for immune cells to be infected. Reports of illness resolving after cancer treatment which depleted a specific class of immune cells support either hypothesis. For the subset of patients who repeatedly present with active EBV infections there is even a report of successful treatment using adoptive immunotherapy which stimulates and cultures cytotoxic T-cells outside the body to destroy a very specific subset of immune cells which might either be infected or involved in a malfunctioning immune response.
Savoldo, B., Huls, M. H., Liu, Z., Okamura, T., Volk, H. D., Reinke, P., ... & Rooney, C. M. (2002). Autologous Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)___specific cytotoxic T cells for the treatment of persistent active EBV infection. Blood, 100(12), 4059-4066.
So does HTLV-1, it is just much slower and less lethal.HIV is of course an example of a virus that infects - and destroys - immune cells.