Reward and immunocompetence

奖赏和免疫能力

• 批准号: 107250-2009
• 负责人: Bielajew, Catherine
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=522067
• 关键词: Reward; immunocompetence

The immunomodulatory effects of rewarding brain stimulation have important functional implications applicable to several central conditions including depression and other stress-related disorders. For example, it has recently been shown that brain stimulation applied to certain structures reduces the depressive symptoms in humans who do not respond to traditional forms of treatment. Understanding the fundamental nature of the relationship between reward and immunological processes is basic to the development of such novel therapies. Protective effects have also been observed as a consequence of environmental enrichment, but there is little data related to its immunological and endocrine influences. In our studies, the expression of sickness behaviours as a consequence of endotoxin challenge differs according to group designation in that animals receiving rewarding brain stimulation display no illness behaviours, roughly half of the animals in the environmental enrichment condition display illness behaviours, and all animals in the control group display illness behaviours. Unlike brain stimulation reward, in which thresholds indicate the rewarding value of the stimulation, there is no index of enrichment to evaluate individual animal responses to their environment. For animals in subordinate positions, for example, the group experience may be less satisfying than for animals in more dominant positions, and affect immunocompetence. The long-term goals of this proposal are to include variables such as age, genetic, and sex differences to determine the contribution of these factors to immunocompetency. Most studies using animal models do not stratify by sex, although it is well-known that there are sex differences in adaptive and innate immunity. Given our general interest in examining the influence of the unique immunological and endocrine profiles associated with females, our studies will be expanded to include both female and male groups.

奖励性脑刺激的免疫调节作用具有重要的功能意义，适用于几种中枢疾病，包括抑郁症和其他应激相关疾病。例如，最近有研究表明，对某些结构进行脑刺激可以减轻对传统治疗形式无反应的人的抑郁症状。了解奖励和免疫过程之间关系的基本性质是开发这种新疗法的基础。由于环境富集，也观察到了保护作用，但有关其免疫和内分泌影响的数据很少。在我们的研究中，由于内毒素激发导致的疾病行为的表达根据组名称而不同，因为接受奖励性脑刺激的动物没有显示疾病行为，环境富集条件下大约一半的动物显示疾病行为，对照组中的所有动物显示疾病行为。与大脑刺激奖励不同，阈值表明刺激的奖励价值，没有富集指数来评估个体动物对环境的反应。例如，对于处于从属地位的动物来说，群体体验可能不如处于主导地位的动物令人满意，并影响免疫能力。该提案的长期目标是包括年龄，遗传和性别差异等变量，以确定这些因素对免疫能力的贡献。大多数使用动物模型的研究没有按性别分层，尽管众所周知，在适应性和先天免疫中存在性别差异。考虑到我们对研究与女性相关的独特免疫和内分泌特征的影响的普遍兴趣，我们的研究将扩大到包括女性和男性群体。