Improving Immune Factors of Diseases

In the treatment of chronic disease, it is not uncommon for pharmaceutical or surgical interventions to be as life threatening as the disease it is designed to treat. For example, to prevent rejection of a new organ, doctors often give immunosuppressive drugs to individuals who have undergone organ transplant surgery. These drugs target a variety of the body’s immune factors including glucocorticoids, cytokines, T-cells, and B-cells among others. The drugs also carry debilitating and potentially life-threatening risks such as liver failure, vomiting, and dehydration. What if you could minimize the body’s exposure to these potentially dangerous treatments? Consider the benefits for these individuals if exposure to these side effects could be reduced by learning a conditioned response.

For this Discussion, review this week’s Learning Resources. Select a disease other than multiple sclerosis and one immune factor related to the disease you selected. Then consider how you might improve that immune factor for that disease. Finally, think of at least three creative strategies you might use to condition the immune system to be more effective.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 a brief description of the disease and the related immune factor you selected. Then, explain two strategies you might use to improve that immune factor for that disease. Finally, explain three creative strategies you might use to condition the immune system to be more effective.

Be sure to support your posts and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.

Readings

• Ader, R. (2001). Psychoneuroimmunology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(3), 94–98.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Bovbjerg, D. H. (2003). Conditioning, cancer, and immune regulation. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 17(1), S58–S61.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Dantzer, R. (2001). Cytokine-induced sickness behavior: Where do we stand? Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 15(1), 7–24.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Meissner, K., Bingel, U., Colloca, L., Wager, T. D., Watson, A., & Flaten, M. A. (2011). The placebo effect: Advances from different methodological approaches. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(45), 16117–16124.
  Copyright 2012 by The Journal of Neuroscience: the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. Used by permission of Society For Neuroscience via the Copyright Clearance Center.
• Prasher, D. (2009). Is there evidence that environmental noise is immunotoxic? Noise & Health, 11(44), 151–155.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Stewart-Williams, S. (2004). The placebo puzzle: Putting together the pieces. Health Psychology, 23(2), 198–206.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Goebel, M. U., Trebst, A. E., Steiner, J., Xie, Y. F., Exton, M. S., Frede, S., …Schedlowski, M. (2002). Behavioral conditioning of immunosuppression is possible in humans. The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 16(14), 1869–1873. Retrieved from http://www.fasebj.org/content/16/14/1869.full.pdf
  Copyright 2002 by The FASEB Journal. Used by permission of FEDN OF AM SOCIETIES FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIO (FASEB) via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Optional Resources

• Exton, M. S., Herklotz, J., Westermann, J., & Schedlowski, M. (2001). Conditioning in the rat: An in vivo model to investigate the molecular mechanisms and clinical implications of brain-immune communication. Immunological Reviews, 184(1), 226–235.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Goebel, M. U., Meykadeh, N., Kou, W., Schedlowski, M., & Hengge, U. R. (2008). Behavioral conditioning of antihistamine effects in patients with allergic rhinitis. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 77(4), 227–234.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Leandro, C. G., de Lima, T. M., Folador, A., Alba-Loreiro, T., do Nascimento, E., de Castro, R. M., … Curi, R. (2006). Physical training attenuates the stress-induced changes in rat t-lymphocyte function. Neuroimmunomodulation, 13(2), 105–113.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Vits, S., Cesko, E., Enck, P., Hillen, U., Schadendorf, D., & Schedlowski, M. (2011). Behavioural conditioning as the mediator of placebo responses in the immune system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 366(1572), 1799–1807.
• The Dana Foundation. (n. d.). Immune conditioning in premalignant HPV disease. Retrieved from http://www.dana.org/grants/human/detail.aspx?id=8820