Oxidative stress and inflammatory pathways in female eating disorders and borderline personality disorders with emotional dysregulation as linking factors with impulsivity and trauma

Personality and Psychoneuroimmunology: A Systems Biology Perspective

Research in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) underscores the intricate connections within the "whole mind-body system." Personality plays a pivotal role, with specific traits linked to stress influencing neural behavior and psychophysiological disorders. Gene expression networks associated with personality affect neuronal plasticity, epigenetic processes, and adaptive behaviors, highlighting the importance of systems biology mechanisms. Systemic inflammation correlates with key personality traits. Understanding the roles of inflammatory and oxidative biomarkers in personality traits and disorders can help identify diagnostic and therapeutic targets for various diseases. Neurobiological features contribute to our understanding of personality disorders and related conditions. Personality traits are linked to distributed neuroendocrine networks, particularly the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, rather than localized brain areas. Correlations have also been identified between personality traits and thyroid hormones. Disrupted hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis functions may be associated with disease severity, depression, and distress, highlighting the need for comprehensive endocrinological and psychopathological evaluations. The gut-brain axis influences personality traits, emotions, stress, and social behaviors. Altered gut microbiota is common in psychiatric conditions, suggesting potential treatments targeting the microbiota. Chronic stress impacts cognitive functions and correlates with personality and mental health, emphasizing the need for comprehensive, multi-dimensional patient profiles for effective prevention and therapy. A biopsychosocial model integrating personality traits will advance personalized and systems medicine.

Possible roles of neuropeptide/transmitter and autoantibody modulation in emotional problems and aggression

The theoretical foundations of understanding psychiatric disorders are undergoing changes. Explaining behaviour and neuroendocrine cell communication leaning towards immunology represents a different approach compared to previous models for understanding complex central nervous system processes. One such approach is the study of immunoglobulins or autoantibodies, and their effect on peptide hormones in the neuro-endocrine system. In the present review, we provide an overview of the literature on neuropeptide/transmitter and autoantibody modulation in psychiatric disorders featuring emotional problems and aggression, including associated illness behaviour. Finally, we discuss the role of psycho-immunology as a growing field in the understanding of psychiatric disorders, and that modulation and regulation by IgG autoAbs represent a relatively new subcategory in psycho-immunology, where studies are currently being conducted.

Transdiagnostic inflammatory and oxidative biomarkers with predictive capacity of self-injurious behavior in impulsive and unstable disorders

INTRODUCTION

Alterations in inflammatory processes have previously been reported in impulsive and unstable disorders, as well as in other psychiatric conditions. In order to investigate transdiagnostic biomarkers associated with various phenotypic features of these disorders, this study is designed to identify biomarkers of inflammatory and oxidative endophenotypes related to autolytic behavior.

METHODS

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from 35 patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), 29 patients with restrictive eating disorder (rED), 21 patients with purging eating disorder (pED) and 23 control subjects. Plasma levels of different inflammatory and oxidative factors were measured by ELISA and the expression of selected proteins was by Western Blot. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to categorize the different inflammatory factors. Additionally, Ancova was performed to observe the differences in the principal components among the different groups and logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the predictive capacity of these components for autolytic behaviors.

RESULTS

We found two inflammatory/oxidative components were associated with BPD, characterized by high levels of JNK and ERK and low levels of GPx, SOD and Keap1; and two other inflammatory/oxidative components were linked to pED, associated with more JNK, TBARS and TNF-α and less GPx and SOD. Two components, with more JNK and ERK and less GPx, SOD and Keap1, predicted non-suicidal self-injury and three components, with higher JNK, TBARS and TNF-α levels and lower GPx, SOD and iNOS levels, predicted suicide attempts.

CONCLUSIONS

These results strongly support the endophenotypic characterization of impulsivity and the identification of transdiagnostic inflammatory/oxidative biomarkers relevant to autolytic behavior in impulsive and unstable disorders. These dates lay the groundwork for developing of screening tests for these biomarker components to rapidly detect biological risk factors for specific impulse control disorders and future self-injurious behaviors.