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Social withdrawal is a well-established part of sickness behavior, but in some contexts sick animals might gain from keeping close instead of keeping away. For instance, sick individuals are more willing to be near known individuals who can provide care and safety (close others) compared to when healthy. Yet, interactions with some strangers might also be beneficial (i.e., healthcare professionals), but it is not known how sickness interplay with social behavior towards such individuals. Here, we assessed if sickness affects perception of caregivers, and developed a new task, the Caregiver Perception Task (CgPT). Twenty-six participants performed the CgPT, once after an injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 0.8 ng/kg body weight, n = 24), and once after an injection of saline (n = 25), one hour and forty-five minutes post-injection. During the task, participants watched short video clips of three types of caregivers: a healthcare professional taking care of a sick individual, a healthcare professional not taking care of a sick individual, and a non-healthcare professional taking care of their sick adult child or partner. After each video clip, the likability, trustworthiness, professionalism, and willingness to interact with and receive care from the caregiver were rated on visual analogue scales. Results showed that participants injected with saline rated healthcare professionals who did not take care of a sick individual less positively on all aspects compared to healthcare professionals who took care of a sick individual. Moreover, compared to saline, LPS increased the participants' willingness to receive care from healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals providing care, but not from healthcare professionals not providing care. Thus, our results indicate that sick individuals may approach unknown individuals with potential to provide care and support., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Metabolites of the kynurenine pathway are hypothesized to be implicated in inflammation-associated depression, but there is a lack of experimental studies in humans assessing the kinetics of kynurenine metabolites in relation to experimentally-induced sickness. The aim of the present study was to assess changes in the kynurenine pathway and to explore its relation to symptoms of sickness behavior during an acute experimental immune challenge. This double-blind placebo-controlled randomized cross-over study included 22 healthy human participants (n = 21 both sessions, M age = 23.4, SD = 3.6, nine women) who received an intravenous injection of 2.0 ng/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and saline (placebo) on two different occasions in a randomized order. Blood samples (0 h, 1 h, 1.5 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, 5 h, 7 h post-injection) were analyzed for kynurenine metabolites and inflammatory cytokines. The intensity of symptoms of sickness behavior was assessed using the 10-item Sickness Questionnaire at 0 h, 1.5 h, 3 h, 5 h, and 7 h post-injection. LPS induced significantly lower concentrations of plasma tryptophan (at 2 h, 4 h, 5 h, and 7 h post-injection), kynurenine (at 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, and 5 h post-injection), nicotinamide (at 4 h, 5 h, and 7 h post-injection), and higher levels for quinolinic acid at 5 h post-injection as compared to placebo. LPS did not affect kynurenic acid, 3-hydroxykynurenine, and picolinic acid. The development of the sickness symptoms was largely similar across items, with the highest levels around 1.5-3 h post-injection. Changes in plasma levels of kynurenine metabolites seem to coincide rather than precede or follow changes in subjective sickness. Exploratory analyses indicate that higher Sickness Questionnaire total scores at 1.5-5 h post-injection were correlated with lower kynurenic acid and nicotinamide levels. These results lend further support for LPS-induced changes in the kynurenine pathway, but may not, as interpreted from blood levels, causally link to LPS-induced acute symptoms of sickness behavior. Future research may consider a larger sample to further scrutinize the role of the kynurenine pathway in the sickness response., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The role of inflammation in common psychiatric diseases is now well acknowledged. However, the factors and mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability in the vulnerability to develop psychopathology-related symptoms in response to inflammation are not well characterized. Herein, we aimed at investigating morphological brain regions central for interoception and emotion regulation, and if these are associated with acute inflammation-induced sickness and anxiety responses., Methods: Systemic inflammation was induced using an intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at a dose of 0.6 ng/kg body weight in 28 healthy individuals, while 21 individuals received an injection of saline (placebo). Individuals' gray matter volume was investigated by automated voxel-based morphometry technique on T1-weighted anatomical images derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Plasma concentrations of TNF-α and IL-6, sickness symptoms (SicknessQ), and state anxiety (STAI-S) were measured before and after the injection., Results: A stronger sickness response to LPS was significantly associated with a larger anterior insula gray matter volume, independently from increases in cytokine concentrations, age, sex and body mass index (R 2  = 65.6%). Similarly, a greater LPS-induced state anxiety response was related to a larger anterior insula gray matter volume, and also by a stronger increase in plasma TNF-α concentrations (R 2  = 40.4%)., Discussion: Anterior insula morphology appears central in the sensitivity to develop symptoms of sickness and anxiety in response to inflammation, and could thus be one risk factor in inflammation-related psychopathologies. Because of the limited sample size, the current results need to be replicated., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Increasing evidence from animal and human studies suggests that inflammation may be involved in mood disorders. Sickness behavior and emotional changes induced by experimental inflammatory stimuli have been extensively studied in humans and rodents to better understand the mechanisms underlying inflammation-driven mood alterations. However, research in animals and humans have remained compartmentalized and a comprehensive comparison of inflammation-induced sickness and depressive-like behavior between rodents and humans is lacking. Thus, here, we highlight similarities and differences in the effects of bacterial lipopolysaccharide administration on the physiological (fever and cytokines), behavioral and emotional components of the sickness response in rodents and humans, and discuss the translational challenges involved. We also emphasize the differences between observable sickness behavior and subjective sickness reports, and advocate for the need to obtain both subjective reports and objective measurements of sickness behavior in humans. We aim to provide complementary insights for translational clinical and experimental research on inflammation-induced behavioral and emotional changes, and their relevance for mood disorders such as depression., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Inflammation-induced sickness is associated with a large set of behavioral alterations; however, its motivational aspects remain poorly explored in humans. The present study assessed the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration at a dose of 2 ng/kg of body weight on motivation in 21 healthy human subjects in a double-blinded, placebo (saline)-controlled, cross-over design. Incentive motivation and reward sensitivity were measured using the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT), in which motivation for high-effort/high-reward trials vs low-effort/low-reward trials are manipulated by variations in reward magnitude and probability to win. Because of the strong interactions between sleepiness and motivation, the role of sleepiness was also determined. As expected, the probability to win predicted the choice to engage in high-effort/high-reward trials; however, this occurred at a greater extent after LPS than after saline administration. This effect was related to the level of sleepiness. Sleepiness increased motivation to choose the high-effort/high-reward mode of response, but only when the probability to win was the highest. LPS had no effect on reward sensitivity either directly or via sleepiness. These results indicate that systemic inflammation induced by LPS administration causes motivational changes in young healthy subjects, which are associated with sleepiness. Thus, despite its association with energy-saving behaviors, sickness allows increased incentive motivation when the effort is deemed worthwhile.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration is a well-established model to assess afferent immune-to-brain communication and behavioral aspects of inflammation. Nevertheless, only few studies in comparatively small samples have assessed state anxiety as a psychological component of sickness behavior despite possible clinical implications for the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric conditions. Thus, the goal of the present analyses carried out in a large, pooled dataset from two independent study sites was to analyze the state anxiety response to LPS administration and to investigate predictors (i.e., cytokine changes; pre-existing anxiety and depression symptoms assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) of the LPS-induced state anxiety changes at different time points after LPS administration. Data from 186 healthy volunteers who participated in one of six randomized, placebo-controlled human studies involving intravenous administration of LPS at doses of 0.4-0.8ng/kg body weight were combined. State anxiety as well as circulating interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and IL-10 concentrations were significantly increased 2h and 3h after LPS administration, with a peak at 2h, and returned to baseline 6h after administration. Greater changes in IL-6 from baseline to 3h after LPS administration significantly and independently predicted a more pronounced LPS-induced state anxiety response. In addition, higher pre-existing subclinical anxiety symptoms significantly predicted a lower increase in state anxiety 3h and 6h after LPS-administration, which was mediated by TNF-α changes. In conclusion, our findings give additional support for a putative role of inflammatory mechanisms in the pathophysiology of stress-related and anxiety disorders and give new insight on the potential role of pre-existing subclinical affective symptoms., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Low-grade systemic inflammation has been implicated in chronic pain, as well as in comorbid diseases like depression and fatigue. We have previously shown that women's pain perception and regulation is more affected by systemic inflammation than that of men. Here we investigated the neural substrates underlying these effects using an fMRI paradigm previously employed in a clinical population. Fifty-one participants (29 women) were injected with 0.6ng/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or saline to induce a peripheral inflammatory response. The subjects were then tested with a pressure pain fMRI paradigm designed to capture descending pain inhibitory activity 2h after injection, and blood was sampled for cytokine analysis. The subjects injected with LPS became more pain sensitive compared to the placebo group, and the heightened pain sensitivity was paralleled by decreased activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) compared to placebo; areas involved in descending pain regulation. The LPS group also had higher activity in the anterior insular cortex, an area underpinning affective and interoceptive pain processing. Women displayed overall less pain-evoked rACC activity compared to men, which may have rendered women less resilient to immune provocation, possibly explaining sex differences in LPS-induced pain sensitivity. Our findings elucidate the pain-related brain circuits affected by experimental peripheral inflammation, strengthening the theoretical link between systemic inflammation and weakened pain regulation in chronic pain disorders. The results further suggest a possible mechanism underlying the female predominance in many chronic pain disorders., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Task-based fMRI has been used to study the effects of experimental inflammation on the human brain, but it remains unknown whether intrinsic connectivity in the brain at rest changes during a sickness response. Here, we investigated the effect of experimental inflammation on connectivity between areas relevant for monitoring of bodily states, motivation, and subjective symptoms of sickness. In a double-blind randomized controlled experiment, 52 healthy volunteers were injected with 0.6ng/kg LPS (lipopolysaccharide) or placebo, and participated in a resting state fMRI experiment after approximately 2h 45min. Resting state fMRI data were available from 48 participants, of which 28 received LPS and 20 received placebo. Bilateral anterior and bilateral posterior insula sections were used as seed regions and connectivity with bilateral orbitofrontal and cingulate (anterior and middle) cortices was investigated. Back pain, headache and global sickness increased significantly after as compared to before LPS, while a non-significant trend was shown for increased nausea. Compared to placebo, LPS was followed by increased connectivity between left anterior insula and left midcingulate cortex. This connectivity was significantly correlated to increase in back pain after LPS and tended to be related to increased global sickness, but was not related to increased headache or nausea. LPS did not affect the connectivity from other insular seeds. In conclusion, the finding of increased functional connectivity between left anterior insula and middle cingulate cortex suggests a potential neurophysiological mechanism that can be further tested to understand the subjective feeling of malaise and discomfort during a sickness response., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Observational studies have suggested that with time, some diseases result in a characteristic odor emanating from different sources on the body of a sick individual. Evolutionarily, however, it would be more advantageous if the innate immune response were detectable by healthy individuals as a first line of defense against infection by various pathogens, to optimize avoidance of contagion. We activated the innate immune system in healthy individuals by injecting them with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide). Within just a few hours, endotoxin-exposed individuals had a more aversive body odor relative to when they were exposed to a placebo. Moreover, this effect was statistically mediated by the individuals' level of immune activation. This chemosensory detection of the early innate immune response in humans represents the first experimental evidence that disease smells and supports the notion of a "behavioral immune response" that protects healthy individuals from sick ones by altering patterns of interpersonal contact.

Systemic inflammation can induce pain hypersensitivity in animal and human experimental models, and has been proposed to be central in clinical pain conditions. Women are overrepresented in many chronic pain conditions, but experimental studies on sex differences in pain regulation during systemic inflammation are still scarce. In two randomized and double blind placebo controlled experiments, we used low doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as an experimental model of systemic inflammation. The first study employed 0.8 ng/kg LPS in a within-subject design of 8 individuals (1 woman), and the second study 0.6 ng/kg LPS in a between-subject design of 52 participants (29 women). We investigated the effect on (a) pressure, heat, and cold pain thresholds, (b) suprathreshold noxious heat and cold sensitivity, and (c) conditioned pain modulation (CPM), and differences between men and women. LPS induced significantly lower pressure pain thresholds as compared to placebo (mean change with the 0.8 ng/kg dose being −64 ± 30 kPa P = .04; with the 0.6 ng/kg dose −58 ± 55 kPa, P < .01, compared to before injection), whereas heat and cold pain thresholds remained unaffected ( P ’s > .70). Suprathreshold noxious pain was not affected by LPS in men ( P ’s ⩾ .15). However, LPS made women rated suprathreshold noxious heat stimuli as more painful ( P = .01), and showed a tendency to rate noxious cold pain as more painful ( P = .06) as compared to placebo. Furthermore, LPS impaired conditioned pain modulation, a measure of endogenous pain inhibition, but this effect was also restricted to women ( P < .01, for men P = .27). Pain sensitivity correlated positively with plasma IL-6 and IL-8 levels. The results show that inflammation more strongly affects deep pain, rather than cutaneous pain, and suggest that women’s pain perception and modulation is more sensitive to immune activation than men’s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental endotoxin administration is a well-established model to analyze the effect of inflammation on the development of mood impairments. However, it remains unknown from previous studies in comparatively small samples whether pre-existing inter-individual differences modulate the behavioral response during endotoxemia. We addressed this question in the present study using a merged database combining data from multiple studies performed at two study sites. In 286 healthy volunteers who either received low-dose intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 0.4–0.8 ng/kg, n = 168) or saline ( n = 118), plasma concentrations of TNF-alpha and IL-6 were analyzed before and 2, 3.5 and 6 hours post injection together with state anxiety symptoms (STAI). Pre-existent symptoms of anxiety and depression (HADS) were assessed before injection. LPS administration induced an increase in state anxiety 2 hours post injection that was positively correlated with increases in TNF-alpha and IL-6, but not with pre-existent HADS scores (when adjusted for age, sex, BMI, LPS dose, and study design). However, higher levels of pre-existent HADS anxiety symptoms predicted a stronger subsequent reduction in state anxiety at 3.5 and 6 hours post LPS injection. Taken together, these data suggest that although inter-individual differences in anxiety or depression symptoms do not appear to explain the extent of mood impairments during endotoxemia, at least in non-patient samples, they still lead to a modified mood response with a faster and stronger decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High inter-subject variability is observed in humans after administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). However, predictors of the sickness response remain poorly investigated. Notably, expectations can modulate treatment outcomes and may be involve in the sickness response. This hypothesis was assessed in 22 healthy human subjects, who received LPS injection (2 ng/kg body weight) and saline injection in randomized order. Subjects reported their expectation of treatment effect before the injection on a scale assessing how they think they will feel (much worse to much better) compared to how they usually feel when they are sick. LPS but not saline administration induced an increase in plasma cytokine concentrations. Subjects also exhibited increased sickness symptoms and altered affective state (e.g., increased state anxiety and negative affect, reduced positive mental state) after LPS administration in comparison to saline administration. An expectation to feel worse than usual when sick was associated with lower behavioral response, e.g., lower state anxiety, after LPS administration. Notably, higher difference between the expectation and the report of the effect (measured on the same scale than the expectation rating at the end of the day), indicating that subjects felt much worse than what they expected, was strongly related to higher state anxiety and negative affect. These results highlight the importance of treatment expectancies in experimentally-induced sickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-rated health (SRH) is a powerful and reliable predictor of future ill-health albeit many of its determinants, such as fatigue, pain and mood, are known to fluctuate over time. The aim of the present study was to study to if sickness behavior mediates the effect of inflammation on self-rated health. In two RTCs ( n = 51 and n = 8) lipopolysaccharide injections (0.6 and 0.8 ng/kg, respectively) were used to provoke an acute inflammation and a sickness response. Sickness behavior (Sickness Questionnaire) and plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines were assessed at baseline and 1.5 h post injection. Current SRH (“How is your health right now”) and general SRH (“How is your general health?”) was measured 1.5 h post injection. Using path analysis, we tested the hypothesis that LPS-increased inflammation provokes sickness behavior, which in turn results in worsened SRH. SRH deteriorated 1.5 h after LPS injection (general: b = .44, p < .001; current: b = .61, p < .001) and these effects were statistically mediated by sickness behavior (general SRH: b = .28, p = .02; current SRH: b = .39, p = .02). However, having a stronger inflammatory response was a significant mediator for worsened current health only ( p < 0.01). Whereas the observed deterioration in current health would be expected during immune provocation, the present study implies that individuals also rate their general health condition as less favorable during an ongoing inflammation, and that they do this as a consequence of sickness behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]