Last month we were excited to have a\u00a0new manuscript<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>published online in the\u00a0Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology<\/a><\/strong> exploring how dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) might impact immune function. It\u2019s been known for a long time that the sympathetic nervous system sends nerve fibers into all the organs of the immune system. This includes so-called \u201cprimary lymph organs\u201d like the thymus and the bone marrow where immune cells are born, and \u201csecondary lymph organs\u201d like the lymph nodes and spleen where immune cells congregate. It\u2019s also known that immune cells have specialized receptors for norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter released by sympathetic nerve fibers, and that immune cells change their behavior in response to norepinephrine. But hardly any of this research has been done in humans, probably because it’s difficult (if not impossible) to directly image or measure the activity of these tiny nerves deep inside the human body.<\/p>\n At the PAIRED Project we use a battery of autonomic function tests (check out\u00a0a video<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of alum, Alyha Benitez, demonstrating) to approximate the function of the ANS and rate it on a simple 0-10 scale called the Composite Autonomic Severity Score (CASS). For this\u00a0new study<\/a><\/strong>, we divided research participants into four groups based on their CASS score. We then measured a panel of 41 cytokines in their blood. These cytokines are substances produced by immune cells that have complex effects on the body. Ideally, they help coordinate the fight against infection, but when not properly regulated they can cause damage through excessive inflammation. The figure below is the main finding from the study which shows four different cytokine networks, one for each of the four groups of participants.<\/p>\n In the network each circle represents one cytokine, and a blue connector between the circles indicates a positive correlation. Positive correlation means they tend to do the same thing, like if the level of one cytokine is high in a participant, then so is the level of the connected cytokine. The differences between the networks are visually striking: the networks with higher CASS scores are much bluer, much more strongly connected. This means that in the higher CASS groups (i.e., the people with worse autonomic function) patients\u2019 cytokines tend to exhibit an \u201call or nothing\u201d response. In a kind of \u201cmob mentality,\u201d if one cytokine is low, they all tend to be low, and if one cytokine is high, they all tend to be high.<\/p>\n Why might this be? Perhaps a normal ANS, with its nerve fibers reaching into the places where immune cells reside, instructs those cells on what cytokines to release, allowing for an appropriately restrained immune response when a threat is detected. If that\u2019s true, then loss of these nerve fibers might result in an overzealous less-targeted response to threat. A normal ANS might also be responsible for assessing the threat level in the first place through its sensory branches, and so an immune system without this neurologic control system may be both blind and bellicose.<\/p>\n These are still early findings, and a lot of work remains. This study examined cytokines, which are released from immune cells, but we didn\u2019t examine the immune cells themselves. We also used the CASS as a summary score of autonomic function, but we still don\u2019t have a good way of specifically measuring the nerve fibers innervating lymph nodes and other immune organs. These are puzzles still to be worked out as we seek to expand our understanding of neurologic control of immunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Autonomic Control of the Immune System Dec 7, 2023 By Jessica Robinson-Papp, MD MS Last month we were excited to have a\u00a0new manuscript\u00a0published online in the\u00a0Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology exploring how dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) might impact immune function. It\u2019s been known for a long time that the sympathetic nervous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4877","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4877"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5845,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4877\/revisions\/5845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/536\/2025\/11\/11481_2023_10088_Fig1_HTML.webp\")
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Autonomic Control of the Immune System<\/h1>\n
Dec 7, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n By Jessica Robinson-Papp, MD MS<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/robinson-papp-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/536\/2024\/10\/3-Autonomic-Control-1024x640.jpg\")
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