Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span

Abstract

ne of the most important medical discoveries of the past two decades has been that the immune system and inflammatory processes are involved in not just a few select disorders, but a wide variety of mental and physical health problems that dominate present-day morbidity and mortality worldwide 1-4. Indeed, chronic inflammatory diseases have been recognized as the most significant cause of death in the world today, with more than 50% of all deaths being attributable to inflammation-related diseases such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and autoimmune and neurodegenerative conditions 5. Evidence is emerging that the risk of developing chronic inflammation can be traced back to early development, and its effects are now known to persist throughout the life span to affect adulthood health and risk of mortality 6-8. In this Perspective, we describe these effects and outline some promising avenues for future research and intervention. Inflammation Inflammation is an evolutionarily conserved process characterized by the activation of immune and non-immune cells that protect the host from bacteria, viruses, toxins and infections by eliminating pathogens and promoting tissue repair and recovery 2,9. Depending on the degree and extent of the inflammatory response, including whether it is systemic or local, metabolic and neuroendocrine changes can occur to conserve metabolic energy and allocate more nutrients to the activated immune system 9-12. Specific biobehavioral effects of inflammation thus include a constellation of energysaving behaviors commonly known as "sickness behaviors, " such as

Interpersonal life stress, inflammation, and depression in adolescence: Testing Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression

“…In conclusion, the present data provide important new insights into the stress-biology-depression relationship by showing that differences in inflammatory reactivity to social stress moderate the effects of recent interpersonal life stress exposure on the development of depressive symptoms over time. The findings thus have implications for understanding individual differences in risk for depression following interpersonal life stress and may help explain why MDD frequently co-occurs with other inflammation-related disease conditions, such as asthma, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders (Furman et al, 2019;Slavich & Auerbach, 2018…”

“…The findings thus have implications for understanding individual differences in risk for depression following interpersonal life stress and may help explain why MDD frequently co-occurs with other inflammation-related disease conditions, such as asthma, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders(Furman et al, 2019;Slavich & Auerbach, 2018). The findings thus have implications for understanding individual differences in risk for depression following interpersonal life stress and may help explain why MDD frequently co-occurs with other inflammation-related disease conditions, such as asthma, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders(Furman et al, 2019;Slavich & Auerbach, 2018).…”

First Things First: Parent Psychological Flexibility and Self-Compassion During COVID-19

“…With the understanding that everything interacts, this focus should aim toward those areas that may have the most impact. For example, sleep deprivation can have a troubling impact on appetite, social interactions, emotional responses, and immune function (Furman et al, 2019). A little bit of improvement in a single thing like sleep can also make a positive impact on these same areas.…”

An implant for long-term cervical vagus nerve stimulation in mice

“…Long-term VNS is currently being explored in the treatment of brain disorders, such as tinnitus [3,4], stroke [5,6], and Alzheimer's disease [7,8], as well as peripheral organ and systemic diseases, including heart failure [9], cardiac arrhythmias [10][11][12][13], pulmonary hypertension [14,15], rheumatoid arthritis [16], Crohn's disease [17], and lupus [18]. The relatively recent discovery that the VN modulates the inflammatory response [19][20][21][22] might broaden the range of future indications for VNS, as inflammation is implicated in many common chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis [23][24][25][26].…”