Have you ever started reading something so deep and so complex that you pause on the second page realizing you already are in over your head? I confess, this article “Advances in Biomarker-Guided Therapy for Pediatric- and Adult-Onset Neuroinflammatory Disorders: Targeting Chemokines/Cytokines” from Frontiers in Immunology did that to me. I am in awe of the time it must have taken to collect and organize the depth of knowledge found in this article. It makes perfect sense why the diseases linked to brain inflammation have been so challenging to treat with pharmaceuticals. It also helps me understand why many natural therapies are quite effective. More on this towards the end.
Scanning this article, one reads that around 300 cytokines, or immune chemical messengers, are known. Even the naming system requires time and diligence to sort through. Combine the sheer number with the variety of functions both particular to some and overlapping with others, and you stand in awe of this system. To wrap my arms around this will require some time and perseverance. For now I want to share some takeaway points pertinent to patient health right now.
First takeaway: Brain inflammation underlies a multitude of brain diseases in both children and adults. The list of studies attributing one disease and another grows weekly. The list of cytokines involved is enough to give you a headache trying to learn all of them.
Second takeaway: Immune cells both inside and outside the nervous system contribute to neuroinflammation. The ones inside the nervous system, like microglia and astrocytes, release cytokines that control the blood brain barrier and trigger inflammation. These immune cells even use neurotransmitters amino acids like GABA, taurine, and glutamate. The immune system and the nervous system interact intimately through these and other mechanisms.
Third takeaway: Any hope of using these cytokine markers to diagnose, evaluate, or treat a cytokine mediated neural disease state will require more than just a consideration of single markers. The various disease states produce patterns of multiple cytokines markers, not simple high or lows in single cytokines.
Fourth takeaway: Quote: “More autoantibody-mediated neuroinflammatory disorders are being identified in the aftermath of CNS infections.” Scientists are finally discovering and admitting the links between infections and neuroinflammation that leads to symptomatic diseases. Further quote: “The viral story comes back full circle to autoimmunity in that viral infection and viral-induced immunity may initiate autoimmune disease (170) through various mechanisms, such as direct bystander activation, epitope spreading, molecular mimicry, and release of cryptic epitopes (173).” We are coming into a whole new understanding of the interaction between infection and autoimmunity in our nervous system.
Fifth takeaway: Researchers are discovering the vast similarities between Traumatic Brain Injury and Multiple Sclerosis in how the neuroinflammatory process overlap. This is both fascinating in its frequent simplicity and daunting in teasing out whether therapies therefore can be likewise similar or not.
Final takeaway (and back to the benefit of natural therapies over pharmaceucticals): As researchers uncover cytokine patterns if various diseases, they are searching also for individual therapies to turn off or on, up or down various cytokine directed processes. Their tactics are a bit simplistic though in light of the complex patterns expressed in each disease. Changing the levels of one cytokine may not be the best answer. We have many natural therapies that act up on multiple points in the inflammation pathway. Might a multi-modal modulation be more productive than a sniper shot? Curcumin, Boswellia, ginger, Cats Claw, and so many others appear to alleviate neuroinflammatory processes at multiple points. Healing intestinal hyperpermeability often lessens or heals blood brain hyperpermeability.
I hope to wade very slowly through this article soon rather than this quick jog over the high points. Until then, I am encouraged that the rest of medicine is catching up to functional medicine in regards to recognizing the role of inflammation in neurologic diseases. I heard over and over during functional medicine certification about the critical need to treat inflammation when dealing with patient’s brain health. Therefore, I will keep recommending the successful natural anti-inflammatories while we see if the pharmaceuticals live up to their hype. That is how we help patients at Sanctuary Functional Medicine live healthier, more abundant lives. Give us a call if you need help addressing brain inflammation, whether you are young or old.
Referenced Paper
Frontiers in Immunology 2018; 9: 557.
Published online 2018 Apr 4. doi:
Advances in Biomarker-Guided Therapy for Pediatric- and Adult-Onset Neuroinflammatory Disorders: Targeting Chemokines/Cytokines
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5893838/
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.