Neurodevelopment: The Impact of Nutrition and Inflammation During Adolescence in Low-Resource Settings

Abstract

Approximately 1 out of 5 children worldwide suffers from childhood malnutrition or stunting and associated health conditions, including an increased susceptibility to infections and inflammation. Due to improved early interventions, most children even in low-resource settings now survive early childhood malnutrition, yet exhibit continuing evidence of neurodevelopmental deficits, including poor school achievement and behavioral problems. These conditions are compounded in children who continue to be undernourished throughout the adolescent years. At present, these sequelae of malnutrition and infection are of major concern in the adolescent population, given that young people between the ages of 10 and 24 years represent nearly one-quarter of the world’s population. Therefore, there is an urgent need to focus on the well-being of this age group and, in particular, on behavioral, cognitive, and brain disorders of adolescents who experienced malnutrition, infection, and inflammation prenatally, in early childhood, and during adolescence itself. Because one-third of all women globally become pregnant during their adolescent years, brain and behavioral disorders during this period can have an intergenerational impact, affecting the health and well-being of the next generation. This article summarizes the current state of knowledge and evidence gaps regarding childhood and adolescent malnutrition and inflammation and their impact on adolescent neurodevelopment, the limited evidence regarding nutrition and psychosocial interventions, and the role of resilience and protective factors in this age group. This overview should help to inform the development of new strategies to improve the neurodevelopmental outcomes of high risk adolescent populations.

Childhood inflammatory markers and intelligence as predictors of subsequent persistent depressive symptoms: a longitudinal cohort study

“…In future prospective studies with data on inflammatory markers at baseline and cognitive function in follow-up are needed to examine this hypothesis. Childhood and adolescent infection/inflammation affect adolescent neurodevelopment, which is further complicated by malnutrition (Galler et al 2017 ; John et al 2017 ). While this is particularly relevant for low and middle-income countries, and that serious malnutrition is unlikely to be a major issue in a contemporary UK cohort, in future studies should examine the relationship between inflammation, nutrition and development.…”

The Association of Vitamin D Status with Lipid Profile and Inflammation Biomarkers in Healthy Adolescents

“…The immunomodulatory effects of vitamin D are not limited to IL-10 induction; the negative association of IL-6 and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) with vitamin D status have also been reported in previous studies [13,14]. Recent studies have demonstrated that inflammation, infectious, or noninfectious-related diseases can disrupt puberty processes and cause impairment in brain developmental [15,16]. The cytosolic domain of tumor necrosis factor-α receptor 2 (TNFR-2), after proteolytic degradation, releases into the circulation.…”

The GLP-1 analog, liraglutide prevents the increase of proinflammatory mediators in the hippocampus of male rat pups submitted to maternal perinatal food restriction

“…Any insult is thought to have its most severe impact during the period of rapid brain “growth” that differs greatly among species [ 78 ]. During this period, changes induced by undernutrition may become permanent and could perturb numerous brain developmental events as was observed in humans and animal models [ 79 , 80 ]. Starvation and FR stimulate HPA axis activity in both humans and rats [ 78 ].…”