Leukocytic epinephrine receptors of normal and asthmatic individuals

A History of Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine Immune Interactions in Rheumatic Diseases

BACKGROUND

All active scientists stand on the shoulders of giants and many other more anonymous scientists, and this is not different in our field of psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology in rheumatic diseases. Too often, the modern world of publishing forgets about the collective enterprise of scientists. Some journals advise the authors to present only literature from the last decade, and it has become a natural attitude of many scientists to present only the latest publications. In order to work against this general unempirical behavior, neuroimmunomodulation devotes the 30th anniversary issue to the history of medical science in psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology.

SUMMARY

Keywords were derived from the psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology research field very well known to the authors (R.H.S. has collected a list of keywords since 1994). We screened PubMed, the Cochran Library of Medicine, Embase, Scopus database, and the ORCID database to find relevant historical literature. The Snowballing procedure helped find related work. According to the historical appearance of discoveries in the field, the order of presentation follows the subsequent scheme: (1) the sensory nervous system, (2) the sympathetic nervous system, (3) the vagus nerve, (4) steroid hormones (glucocorticoids, androgens, progesterone, estrogens, and the vitamin D hormone), (5) afferent pathways involved in fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, and depression (includes pathophysiology), and (6) evolutionary medicine and energy regulation - an umbrella theory.

KEY MESSAGES

A brief history on psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology cannot address all relevant aspects of the field. The authors are aware of this shortcoming. The reader must see this review as a viewpoint through the biased eyes of the authors. Nevertheless, the text gives an overview of the history in psycho-neuro-endocrine immunology of rheumatic diseases.

Beta adrenergic receptors of polymorphonuclear particulates in bronchial asthma

We have tested the beta adrenergic receptor theory of bronchial asthma by determining the number and affinity of binding sites of the beta adrenergic radioligand [(3)H]dihydroalprenolol (DHA) and the activity of adenylate cyclase in broken cell preparations of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). We studied 31 control subjects (group 1), 30 asthmatics receiving no systemic adrenergic medication (group 2), and 17 asthmatics receiving adrenergic agonists systemically (group 3). Control subjects and asthmatics taking no adrenergic drugs bound similar amounts of DHA at 0.5 nM and 30 nM DHA and had about 900 binding sites per PMN. In contrast, asthmatics receiving adrenergic agonists had a >70% decrease in their number of DHA binding sites per PMN (254+/-57). In a subset of our three groups of subjects (eight from group 1, six from group 2, and five from group 3) we measured DHA binding at several DHA concentrations and found similar values (0.4-0.7 nM) for the dissociation constant of DHA among these subjects. In further studies we examined the interaction of the agonist (-)-isoproterenol with beta adrenergic receptors in 8 normal subjects and 10 asthmatics not receiving adrenergic medication. We tested the ability of isoproterenol to compete for DHA binding sites and to stimulate adenylate cyclase in sonicates prepared from PMN and examined under identical conditions. The dissociation constants for the competition of isoproterenol for DHA binding sites in normal and asthmatic subjects were virtually identical ( approximately 1.0 muM). In addition, the (activation constant) values for stimulation of adenylate cyclase were similar (0.16-0.19 muM) in the two groups of subjects.Thus, these data suggest that asthma per se is not associated with alteration in either the number or affinity of beta adrenergic receptors in PMN. Our findings indicate that previous reports of abnormal beta adrenergic receptor function in asthmatic patients may in part be explained by prior treatment of such patients with adrenergic agonists. Because the asthmatics who received adrenergic agonists in our study tended to be more ill and to receive additional medication compared to subjects in group 2, we cannot rule out unequivocally that severe asthma may be associated with decreased binding to beta adrenergic receptors. Nevertheless, we conclude that beta adrenergic receptors on PMN from asthmatics are relatively normal unless such patients are treated with adrenergic agonists.

Impaired responses of growth hormone and blood eosinophils to L-dopa in atopy

In order to assess whether response to the natural precursor of catecholamines in the nervous system is impaired in atopy, 500 mg L-dopa was administered to 13 atopic patients with bronchial asthma or hay fever and 13 sex-and-age-matched control subjects. The blood eosinophil count and growth hormone (GH) levels were then determined periodically over a 4-h period. The eosinophil count rose significantly 30 and 60 min after L-dopa in healthy subjects, but not in the atopic patients. The mean rise in GH 30 and 60 min after L-dopa was significantly lower in atopic patients as compared with controls. Injection of apomorphine 0.75 mg elicited increase in GH in nine of the 10 control subjects, but only in six of the 11 atopic patients. These results indicate that central dopaminergic stimulation is often impaired in patients with atopy. In testing GH release, atopy should be considered among the causes of failure to respond.

Comparison of cyclic adenosine monophosphate response of lymphocytes in normal and asthmatic subjects to norepinephrine and salbutamol

Reduced response of beta adrenergic receptors, especially beta-2 receptors, has been suggested as a contributing factor in the etiology of asthma. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) production in lymphocytes after exposure to 10(-3) M salbutamol, predominantly a beta-2 receptor stimulant, was significantly less in asthmatic subjects than in normal subjects, while there was no significant difference in cyclic AMP response to 10(-3) M norepinephrine, predominantly a beta-1 receptor stimulant. Both drugs evoked the maximum response at 10(-3) M. The cyclic AMP response to salbutamol of 5 asthmatic subjects being treated with steroids was diminished significantly compared with that of 7 patients not treated with steroids; however, the response to norepinephrine was similar in both groups. The degree of the abnormality in the beta-2 receptor response seems to be related to the severity of the asthma.