Antiinflammatory drugs achieve their therapeutic actions at least in part by regulation of cytokine formation. A "cytokine hypothesis" of depression is supported by the observation that depressed individuals have elevated plasma levels of certain cytokines compared with healthy controls. Here we investigated a possible interaction between antidepressant agents and antiinflammatory agents on ant...

TNF has a critical mediator role in inflammation and is an important therapeutic target. We recently discovered that TNF production is regulated by neural signals through the vagus nerve. Activation of this "cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway" inhibits the production of TNF and other cytokines and protects animals from the inflammatory damage caused by endotoxemia and severe sepsis. Here, we ...

Understanding of the antiinflammatory actions of nonsteroidal drugs is incomplete, but these actions are believed to occur in the periphery, without any contribution from the central nervous system. Recent research on the antipyretic antiinflammatory neuropeptide alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone indicates that it can act centrally to inhibit peripheral inflammation; this raises the possibil...

Conium maculatum Linn. (Umbelliferae) has been traditionally used in the treatment of spasmodic disorders, and to relieve nervous excitation, rheumatic pains in the old and feeble, pain in stomach, pain of gastric ulcer, nervousness and restlessness. Alkaloids have long been considered as bioactive group of constituents present in C. maculatum. Despite a long tradition of use, C. maculatum has ...

Local and systemic inflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis and secondary multisystem organ failure. To assess the pro- and antiinflammatory response, the site of mediator production, and their route of diffusion, we sampled simultaneously ascites, thoracic lymph, and blood at the onset of end-organ dysfunction and for the following 6 days in 60 patients with a...

-MSH is a tridecapeptide derived from proopiomelanocortin. Many studies over the last few years have provided evidence that -MSH has potent protective and antiinflammatory effects. These effects can be elicited via centrally expressed melanocortin receptors that orchestrate descending neurogenic antiinflammatory pathways. -MSH can also exert antiinflammatory and protective effects on cells of t...