'If you don't have inflammation, then you'll die': How scientists are reprogramming the body's natural superpower

[Sly Saint]

Inflammation is one of the body's superpowers. It helps us fight off infections and heal wounds.

"If you don't have inflammation, then you'll die," Ed Rainger, a professor who studies chronic inflammation at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., told Live Science. "It's as simple as that."

But if it transitions from a short-term response to one that lingers for months or years, chronic inflammation can fuel diseases such as cirrhosis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and heart disease.

In the past, doctors tried to treat these diseases by shutting down all inflammation, which has nasty side effects and doesn't always work. But now, scientists are designing treatments that don't eliminate inflammation altogether but rather reprogram the cells that fuel it.

And in diseases like cancer, where tumors hijack the healing side of inflammation to fuel their growth, new treatments are instead taking the opposite approach — pushing inflammation back into a fighting state so that it can better attack these mutated cells.

Depending on the context, inflammation can be seen as helpful or harmful, but thanks to new research, in either case, it can be brought back under control.

"If you can do that, then you can let the immune system and the inflammatory response get on with it, just in a normal way," Rainger said.

"The whole point of inflammation is to control an infection, stop it spreading and then allow the healing process to start," Robert Anthony, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University, told Live Science.

During acute inflammation, damaged cells send out "danger" signals that lure immune cells to the site of the attack. These first responders include the amoeba-like macrophages that gobble up harmful invaders and neutrophils, which trap and kill these enemies. Once activated, these cells produce chemicals called cytokines, which amplify inflammation in a positive feedback loop.

As this acute inflammation rages, the immune system is learning to target the enemy more selectively.

Normally, acute inflammation peaks around seven days after the initial attack and starts to resolve around three days later, Anthony said. At the same time, certain cells work to heal wounds, secreting anti-inflammatory signals and promoting the formation of new blood vessels and connective tissue.

Scientists don't fully understand how the body switches off acute inflammation. But sometimes — for instance, if the immune system can't fully control an infection — it doesn't. Then, inflammation can morph from essential to harmful.

If "you stop that transition about day 10, that's when things transition into the chronic phase," Anthony said.

In chronic inflammation, neutrophils, macrophages and other white blood cells linger at the site of inflammation. They churn out cytokines, which keep inflammation amped up. Inflammatory cells also produce growth factors that fuel cell division and enzymes that cause tissue damage, which then sends out more "danger" signals to keep the loop going.

Chronic inflammation is implicated in a range of diseases, including RA, which affects the joints; cirrhosis, or severe liver scarring; and atherosclerosis, or plaques in blood vessels that can lead to heart attack and stroke. And the cellular proliferation and mutation induced by chronic inflammation can create a perfect environment for cancer to develop.

'If you don't have inflammation, then you'll die': How scientists are reprogramming the body's natural superpower (msn.com)

 

[Wonko]

Just to add some balance.....everyone who has inflammation......also dies.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

The idea that acute inflammation 'transitions' into chronic is garbage. It has been around since I was a doctoral student and it made no sense then. Diseases due to chronic inflammation have an error in the generation of inflammation from the outset. Acute inflammation shuts off when the mess (usually bacteria or bruising) has been mopped up because there is no more irritation. Your sore finger gets better precisely when you dig that splinter out.

 

[Creekside]

While a good idea--controlling immune system function--I think it's not going to be simple. Our immune systems are very complex, with lots of interactions with other systems in the body. They're balanced as the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Turning off one function could have serious unexpected effects. What if you turn off the response to a specific antibody (long term), and 20 years later, patients start developing cancer because the immune system evolved to use that antibody to prevent that cancer?

I agree with Jonathan that they seem to be misunderstanding how inflammation works. At least some chronic inflammation is because the immune cells forget that a certain protein is supposed to be there, so it's the allergen that becomes chronic. There might be some situations where the immune system fails and becomes chronically locked in the wrong state, but that doesn't mean that all chronic inflammation is acute inflammation that "transitions".