john herr psychologist los gatos saratoga california

On Sabbatical

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TITLE: Bacterial products and the control of ingestive behavior: clinical implications.
AUTHOR: Langhans W
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Institute for Animal Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.
SOURCE: Nutrition 1996 May;12(5):303-15
NLM CIT. ID: 97029503
ABSTRACT: Bacterial products such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and muramyl peptides are delivered in the course of infections. They trigger the host's acute phase responses to bacterial infections and are probably involved in the accompanying hypophagia because LPS and muramyl dipeptide (MDP, the minimal immunologically active muramyl peptide) reduce food intake after parenteral administration in animals. LPS and MDP inhibit feeding synergistically through separate but interacting mechanisms. The hypophagic effects of LPS and MDP are presumably mediated by the combined actions of interleukin-1, tumor necrosis factor, and other cytokines. More work is required to understand the interactions between these cytokines, and between bacterial products and cytokines, before cytokine antagonists can be used for treatment of the hypophagia during bacterial infections. As the hypophagia seems to be an early mechanism of host defense, a treatment should be carefully considered. If an intervention is indicated because of a patient's poor condition, inhibitors of eicosanoid synthesis and glucocorticoids may hold more promise for therapy because such substances block LPS and MDP hypophagia. Although LPS can reduce food intake by direct action on the brain, presently available evidence indicates that systemic LPS acts primarily in the periphery to generate a neural signal that is transmitted to the brain and inhibits feeding through the vagus. The exact site where LPS acts on peripheral nerves remains to be identified. LPS hypophagia is conditionable, but conditioning cannot solely account for LPS hypophagia under most test conditions. Whether MDP hypophagia is also conditionable and mediated by vagal afferents is not yet known. All in all, the putative mediators and mechanisms of LPS and MDP hypophagia suggest some options for a treatment of the hypophagia during bacterial infection, but present knowledge about the mechanisms and interactions of the involved substances is still fragmentary and requires further investigation.
MAIN MESH SUBJECTS: *Acetylmuramyl-Alanyl-Isoglutamine/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE/ ADVERSE EFFECTS/ANTAGONISTS & INHIB
Acute-Phase Reaction/*PHYSIOPATHOLOGY
Bacterial Proteins/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE/*ADVERSE EFFECTS/ ANTAGONISTS & INHIB
Drinking/DRUG EFFECTS/*PHYSIOLOGY
Eating/DRUG EFFECTS/*PHYSIOLOGY
*Lipopolysaccharides/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE/ADVERSE EFFECTS/ ANTAGONISTS & INHIB
ADDITIONAL MESH SUBJECTS: Comparative Study
Cytokines/ANTAGONISTS & INHIB
Eicosanoids/ANTAGONISTS & INHIB/BIOSYNTHESIS
Feeding Behavior
Gastric Emptying/DRUG EFFECTS/PHYSIOLOGY
Glucocorticoids/ANTAGONISTS & INHIB/BIOSYNTHESIS
Glucocorticoids, Synthetic/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE
Human
Prednisolone/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE
Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PUBLICATION TYPES: JOURNAL ARTICLE
REVIEW
REVIEW, TUTORIAL
LANGUAGE: Eng
REGISTRY NUMBERS: 0 (Bacterial Proteins)
0 (Cytokines)
0 (Eicosanoids)
0 (Glucocorticoids)
0 (Glucocorticoids, Synthetic)
0 (Lipopolysaccharides)
50-24-8 (Prednisolone)
53678-77-6 (Acetylmuramyl-Alanyl-Isoglutamine)

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On Sabbatical!

When my office lease expired at the end of 2004, I decided to turn it into a "sabbatical" from my private practice. Many years ago, in my grandfather's 89th year of life, he told me, "John, it is important to smell the roses while you can still smell them." His life gave living a very good reputation. It is also true that the pursuit of that philosophy required my grandfather to to re-open his assay office/ore market in Wickenburg, Arizona as a 75-year-old because he had run a little short of retirement money. Thus, if blessed with his luck and health, I'll be back.. --jjh

Copyright 1998-2007  John J. Herr, Ph.D.                                   Please send comments to jjherr@clinicalpsychologist.com