Inflammation is our friend?

Insights and discussion from the cutting edge with reference to journal articles and other research papers.
User avatar
Julie G
Mod
Mod
Posts: 9192
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:36 pm

Inflammation is our friend?

Post by Julie G »

HUH? Researchers stumble across a counterintuitive discovery. Interleukin 10 or IL-10, an anti-inflammatory protein, is found to promote amyloid deposition only in E4 carriers. So, all of the strategies we're employing to calm inflammation and upregulate IL10 may NOT be helping us after all...

Researchers uncover mechanism by which anti-inflammatory processes may cause Alzheimer's
http://www.news-medical.net/news/201501 ... imers.aspx
In this case, the authors showed that the anti-inflammatory protein IL-10 actually increases levels of all types of mouse APOE, which resembles human APOE. In the mouse model, APOE binds with amyloid-beta rather than clearing it from the brain, accelerating buildup of plaque in the brain of a mouse with Alzheimer's. How an anti-inflammatory therapy based on IL-10 expression might alter risk for Alzheimer's may depend on the genetic variant of APOE protein the person is carrying. If the person has an APOE4 allele the researchers predict the risk for Alzheimer's would increase.
This is so incredibly counterintuitive that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop...
User avatar
RichardS
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 246
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 7:47 am

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by RichardS »

We think of inflammation as a core problem, but the bigger question in my mind when it comes to intervention is: what is causing the inflammation, and can we affect those causes directly rather than only the downstream inflammation?
asiagillett
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 7:22 am

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by asiagillett »

I am completely mind boggled over this but my instant take away is a little relief that maybe it's not the boogeyman for us that we once thought. Obviously much more research into this needs to be done, I mean wow.
User avatar
Julie G
Mod
Mod
Posts: 9192
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:36 pm

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by Julie G »

Right, Asia :shock:

I like Richard's take on this....Let's say I'm sensitive to gluten; it gives me a headache. I need to AVOID gluten, rather than take an NSAID to deal with the downstream inflammation. i'm still eliminating the inflammation. But not in a way that upregulates IL-10. Hope I'm getting that right?
User avatar
LillyBritches
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 588
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:35 pm

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by LillyBritches »

What the WHAT??? :o :o :o

Wondering: does this perchance skim the reconciliation surface re having a stellar immune system is great for preventing the buildup of AB v. don't have TOO great of an immuno response or you'll create inflammation, therefore increasing AD risk?

Of course I'm pondering for selfish reasons. It drives me batcaca to know that I have a wonderful immune system but that those same guardians can cause harmful inflammation.
I'm just a oily slick in a windup world with a nervous tick.
User avatar
Teezer
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 146
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:45 pm
Location: Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by Teezer »

I saw this article a couple of days ago, but I didn't know what to make of it because we don't seem to be able to do anything about IL-10 (also known as human cytokine synthesis inhibitory factor). It's an internally created cytokine, and there doesn't seem to be an external way to increase or decrease it.

I did find some IL-10 Promoter Polymorphism SNPs.

My 23andme results // Noted ungood results
rs1800872 G;G // A;C
rs1800871 G;G // C;T assoc w/gastric cancer
rs1800896 C;T // A;G assoc w/prostate cancer
rs1800893 C;T // A;G
It's weird how I'm constantly surprised by the passage of time when it's literally the most predictable thing in the universe. -- xkcd
User avatar
LillyBritches
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 588
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:35 pm

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by LillyBritches »

Teezer, thanks much for providing those SNPs. Interesting re IL 10 levels and two of the SNPs (as far as I traveled down the rabbit hole). Check it out:

rs1800871 - I'm GG. According to this 2009 abstract, I'm simply awash in brain inflammation (I'm AA on IL 6 as well):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1969 ... t=Abstract
We replicated the interaction. For IL6 rs2069837 AA x IL10 rs1800871 CC, the synergy factor (SF) was 1.63 (95% confidence interval: 1.10-2.41, p = 0.01), controlling for centre, age, gender and apolipoprotein E epsilon4 (APOEepsilon4) genotype. Our results are consistent between North Europe (SF = 1.7, p = 0.03) and North Spain (SF = 2.0, p = 0.09). Further replication may require a meta-analysis. However, association due to linkage disequilibrium with other polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of these genes cannot be excluded.
CONCLUSION:
We suggest that dysregulation of both IL-6 and IL-10 in some elderly people, due in part to genetic variations in the two genes, contributes to the development of AD. Thus, inflammation facilitates the onset of sporadic AD.
So, according to this model, and in accordance with the inflammation contributory theory of AD, I'm screwed. However, with this newest study saying IL 10 is bad for 4s...well, you get it.

The other SNP of interest is rs1800872. I'm GG on this one, as well. Looks like I don't produce a whole heck of a lot IL 10 on this SNP, either. This SNP seems to be linked to IL 10 serum levels. The -592 polymorphism is CT (or GA) on rs1800872:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1969 ... t=Abstract
RESULTS: No significant differences were found between genotype frequencies at loci -819, -1082, and -1352. Individuals carrying at least one copy of risk allele A of polymorphism -592 had a two-fold increased risk of developing SICL [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 2.02 (95% CI, 1.26-3.25), p = 0.003], compared to NCL. The IL-10 mRNA expression and serum IL-10 protein, were significantly higher in SICL cases (p < 0.01), being higher in patients carrying the risk allele A.
CONCLUSIONS:
The -592 polymorphism is associated with increased risk of SICL and can serve as a marker of genetic susceptibility to SICL among Mexican women. According to IL-10 levels found in SICL, IL-10 can be relevant factor for viral persistence and progression disease.
If you carry the risk allele A (or T), it would appear that you've higher serum IL 10 expression.

Of course I could be completely wrong in my deductions (won't be the first time, Sherlock) and I'm not Mexican. But for now I'll pronounce: "thanks, rodentia."
I'm just a oily slick in a windup world with a nervous tick.
User avatar
Russ
Senior Contributor
Senior Contributor
Posts: 566
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:33 am

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by Russ »

Perhaps another example underscoring that things are not intrinsically good or bad, but can get out of balance. I think we've long understood that acute inflammation is good (e.g. wound healing), but chronic inflammation is bad. As Richard says, better think about what causes it (chronically), than the inflammation itself. I also continue to think that the way out of many apparent conundrums is variability - nature seems to do better all around when things change than when they stay constant all the time.
Russ
E3/4
Eat whole, real, flavorful food - fresh and in season... and mix it up once in a while.
marthaNH
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 554
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:47 pm

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by marthaNH »

Russ, hearing that reminds me of something that a wise doctor told me a long time ago. He told me that when you introduce something foreign into the body (we were talking about IUDs back before they were taken off the market), the body was going to either reject it or assimilate it. (In this case that meant grow tissue over it, I think, which caused, ahem, issues.) He had a good friend who was part of the first medical team doing heart transplants in the US, so was interested in the whole topic.

He felt the same way about intoxicants. If you drank every day, your body was going to change in a way that would accommodate it (for good or ill) whereas if you binged once in a while, you'd more likely just throw up.

Anyway, from someone who saw a hell of a lot of patients and was a smart guy, that's how he explained it to me.
GenePoole0304
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 561
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:20 pm

Re: Inflammation is our friend?

Post by GenePoole0304 »

....?.....?....
I think this explains it better
Now this may go with some other previous old research, anyone have an idea?...


PUBLIC RELEASE: 22-JAN-2015
Research suggests anti-inflammatory protein may trigger plaque in Alzheimer's disease
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

SHARE PRINT E-MAIL
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Inflammation has long been studied in Alzheimer's, but in a counterintuitive finding reported in a new paper, University of Florida researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which anti-inflammatory processes may trigger the disease.

This anti-inflammatory process might actually trigger the build-up of sticky clumps of protein that form plaques in the brain. These plaques block brain cells' ability to communicate and are a well-known characteristic of the illness.

The finding suggests that Alzheimer's treatments might need to be tailored to patients depending on which forms of Apolipoprotein E, a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, these patients carry in their genes.

The researchers have shown that the anti-inflammatory protein interleukin 10, or IL-10, can actually increase the amount of apolipoprotein E, or APOE, protein -- and thereby plaque -- that accumulates in the brain of a mouse model of Alzheimer's, according to the study, published online today (Jan. 22) in the journal Neuron.

In the 1990s, researchers theorized that using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, might protect people from the onset of Alzheimer's by dampening inflammation that released a cascade of harmful proteins. Though NSAIDs were shown to be effective in some studies, other research that evaluated a group of participants taking NSAIDs over time failed to show any clear protective benefit.

"There are many different kinds of NSAIDs," said Todd Golde, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease and the paper's lead author. "Not all NSAIDs are equal, and it wasn't clear what else they were doing when they were addressing their intended target."

Previously, researchers hypothesized that a flood of proteins, called cytokines, involved in promoting inflammation in the brain contributed to the formation of plaque in Alzheimer's disease. However, in this publication, the UF researchers provide new evidence that anti-inflammatory stimuli may actually increase plaque.

"This is another piece of evidence that overturns the long-held hypothesis that a 'cytokine storm' creates a self-reinforcing, neurotoxic feedback loop that promotes amyloid-beta (plaque) deposition," said Paramita Chakrabarty, Ph.D., a member of the UF Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine department of neuroscience and the paper's co-author.

The researchers said that a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's hinges on the relationship between IL-10 and APOE. APOE clears the cell of many different proteins, including the protein amyloid-beta, which contributes to the buildup of plaque. But there are several different forms of APOE in cells, which differ from each other by only one or two amino acids. The form called APOE4 is the largest known genetic risk factor in Alzheimer's disease, while APOE2 is thought to be protective, Golde said.

"About 15 to 17 percent of the population has the APOE 4 allele, and about 50 percent of people with Alzheimer's have it," Golde said.

In this case, the authors showed that the anti-inflammatory protein IL-10 actually increases levels of all types of mouse APOE, which resembles human APOE. In the mouse model, APOE binds with amyloid-beta rather than clearing it from the brain, accelerating buildup of plaque in the brain of a mouse with Alzheimer's. How an anti-inflammatory therapy based on IL-10 expression might alter risk for Alzheimer's may depend on the genetic variant of APOE protein the person is carrying. If the person has an APOE4 allele the researchers predict the risk for Alzheimer's would increase.

"In one way, this study offers additional insight into how environmental influences interacts with people's underlying genotypes to alter their risk for diseases," Golde said. "We know that people are exposed to various inflammatory or anti-inflammatory stimuli throughout their lives. Depending on what their genotype is, that exposure may in some cases protect them from Alzheimer's, or, in other cases, increase their risk for Alzheimer's."

###

The research was funded in part through an $8.4 million grant to speed up the process of finding therapies for Alzheimer's disease from the National Institutes of Health's Office of the Director, with additional funding from the National Institute on Aging and the Ellison Medical Foundation. Next, the researchers plan to carry out more thorough and mechanistic studies to exactly understand how an increase in APOE protein induced by IL-10 will affect amyloid plaque deposition in mice carrying different alleles of human APOE.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
SHARE PRINT
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 012215.php
Post Reply