Background
Although it is known that stress elevates the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and promotes hyper-excitable central conditions, a causal relationship between these two factors has not yet been identified. Recent studies suggest that increases in interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels are specifically associated with stress. We hypothesized that IL-6 acutely and directly induces cortical hyper-excitability by altering the balance between synaptic excitation and inhibition.
Methods
We used patch-clamp to determine the effects of exogenous or endogenous IL-6 on electrically evoked postsynaptic currents on a cortical rat slice preparation. We used control subjects or animals systemically injected with lipopolysaccharide or subjected to electrical foot-shock as rat models of stress.
Results
In control animals, IL-6 did not affect excitatory postsynaptic currents but selectively and reversibly reduced the amplitude of inhibitory postsynaptic currents with a postsynaptic effect. The IL-6-induced inhibitory postsynaptic currents decrease was inhibited by drugs interfering with receptor trafficking and/or internalization, including wortmannin, Brefeldin A, 2-Br-hexadecanoic acid, or dynamin peptide inhibitor. In both animal models, stress-induced decrease in synaptic inhibition/excitation ratio was prevented by prior intraventricular injection of an analog of the endogenous IL-6 trans-signaling blocker gp130.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that stress-induced IL-6 shifts the balance between synaptic inhibition and excitation in favor of the latter, possibly by decreasing the density of functional γ-aminobutyric acid A receptors, accelerating their removal and/or decreasing their insertion rate from/to the plasma membrane. We speculate that this mechanism could contribute to stress-induced detrimental long-term increases in central excitability present in a variety of neurological and psychiatric conditions.
A prospective cross sectional study on the awareness, knowledge and risk factors of CKD among Diabetic and Hypertensive patients was conducted in the outpatient and inpatient wards of a tertiary care hospital in Bengaluru. A total number of 100 patients were included in the study. The results indicated that, out of 100 patients, 38% was having knowledge and 62% were without knowledge. 43% were having positive attitude and 57% with a negative attitude. It was found that majority of the people were without knowledge, that is 62% and negative attitude 57%. The study revealed that among educated people, 55.55% was having poor knowledge and 44.44% was having good knowledge. Among uneducated people, 64.86 % was having poor knowledge and 35.13 % was having good knowledge. Among 100 participants, 43% has positive attitude and 57% has negative attitude.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.