Affective immunology: where emotions and the immune response converge

Abstract

Affect and emotion are defined as “an essential part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli.” Similar to affect, the immune response is the “tool” the body uses to interact with the external environment. Thanks to the emotional and immunological response, we learn to distinguish between what we like and what we do not like, to counteract a broad range of challenges, and to adjust to the environment we are living in. Recent compelling evidence has shown that the emotional and immunological systems share more than a similarity of functions. This review article will discuss the crosstalk between these two systems and the need for a new scientific area of research called affective immunology. Research in this field will allow a better understanding and appreciation of the immunological basis of mental disorders and the emotional side of immune diseases.

Adaptation of prelimbic cortex mediated by IL-6/STAT3/Acp5 pathway contributes to the comorbidity of neuropathic pain and depression in rats

“…3 B). Studies showed that inflammatory responses was involved in the emotional disorder and neuropathic pain [ 39 , 40 ]. From these six terms, we selected seven upregulated target genes including S100a9 , Ltf , Slip , Cd244 , Acp5 , Areg and Six1 (Fig.…”

Animal Welfare and Resistance to Disease: Interaction of Affective States and the Immune System

“…In human medicine, the relatively new interdisciplinary field of Affective Immunology studies the links between emotion and the immune system. This covers both the way the immune system affects the emotional state and also the way that emotions alter the status of the immune status ( 7 , 18 ). Studies investigating these links in humans use different approaches and constructs, making it difficult to interpret results and draw conclusions for non-human species.…”

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Affective Immunology: The Crosstalk Between Microglia and Astrocytes Plays Key Role?

“…To understand the dynamics of the fine interaction between the emotion (or affection) and immune response, a specialized branch called “affective immunology” was recently introduced to distinguish it from “psychoneuroimmunology” which broadly studies the relationship between psychological processes, neuroendocrine activities, and immune systems ( 7 ). The high plasticity of the immune system significantly raises the exciting possibility of translational research.…”