Acute and Chronic Alcohol Abuse Modulate Immunity

Abstract

This article represents the proceedings of the Alcohol and Immunology Research Interest Group (AIRIG) meeting, a satellite workshop held at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Leukocyte Biology. The meeting was sponsored by the AIRIG and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The presentations were as follows: (1) Effects of Ethanol on Immune Response to Hepatitis C Virus by Jack R. Wands, (2) Alcohol and Alveolar Macrophage Dysfunction: The Role of Chronic Oxidant Stress by Lou Ann S. Brown, (3) T Cell Responses to Listeria monocytogenes in Mice on a Chronic Ethanol Exposure Protocol by Robert T. Cook, (4) Mechanisms of Acute and Chronic Alcohol Consumption on Severity of Viral Infections by the Liver and Pancreas by Thomas R. Jerrells, (5) Acute and Chronic Effects on Macrophage Ectodomain Shedding: Implications for Lung Host Defenses by Jay K. Kolls, (6) Increased Susceptibility to Pseudomonas Infection of Burn-Injured Mice Given Alcohol Before Injury by Elizabeth J. Kovacs, (7) Regulation of Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha Expression in Macrophages by Chronic Ethanol by Laura E. Nagy, and (8) Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Alcohol Use by Gyongyi Szabo. Meeting coorganizers were Elizabeth J. Kovacs, Lou Ann S. Brown, Thomas R. Jerrells, and Robert T. Cook.

Alcohol Effects on TNF-α and IL-10 Production in an Ex-Vivo Model of Whole Blood Stimulated by LPS

“…Furthermore, data supports that decreased TNF-α production involves decreased transcription mechanisms [11,26].…”

“…It was found that acute exposure to alcohol induced a dosedependent decrease in TNF-α production by monocytes which occurs at multiple levels since alcohol acts both at cellular membrane and at the intracellular level [11,[24][25][26].…”

“…Several studies in animals and humans show that alcohol exerts an immunosuppressive effect in a variety of immune cells including polymorphonuclear cells, monocytes/macrophages and T lymphocytes by suppressing chemotaxis, inflammatory response and inflammatory mediators including cytokines [3,6,11,[15][16][17][18][19].…”

“…Alcohol abuse is associated with increased incidence of several serious infections including pneumonias, tuberculosis, chronic hepatitis C infection and increased susceptibility to HIV infection [4,[6][7][8][9][10]. Additionally, acute alcohol exposure increases the risk of infection in trauma and burn patients [11][12][13][14].…”

Descriptive systematic review of sub-Saharan African studies on the association between alcohol use and HIV infection

“…Chronic, and even acute, alcohol use results in impaired immunity and alcohol-induced malnutrition, increasing host susceptibility to infection by bacterial and viral pathogens (Brown et al, 2006;Waldschmidt, Cook & Kovacs, 2008).…”