Precision Neuro-Immunology

Emotion & Medicine
Cytokine Storm in Mental Illness (2025)
Peripheral cytokine levels across psychiatric disorders:

A systematic review and network meta-analysis (2023)

*China
​Abstract

Immune dysregulated cytokine production is involved in mental diseases.

However, the results are inconsistent and the pattern of cytokine alterations has not been compared across disorders.

We performed a network impact analysis of cytokine levels for different psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compressive disorder to evaluate their clinical impact across conditions.

Studies were identified by searching the electronic databases up to 31/05/2022. A total of eight cytokines, together with (high-sensitivity) C-reactive proteins (hsCRP/CRP) were included in the network meta-analysis.

The levels of proinflammatory cytokines, hsCRP/CRP and interleukin 6 (IL-6) were significantly increased in patients with psychiatric disorders when compared to controls. IL-6 showed no significant difference among comparisons between disorders according to the network meta-analysis.

Interleukin 10 (IL-10) is significantly increased in patients with bipolar disorder compared to major depressive disorder. Further, the level of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) was significantly increased in major depressive disorder as compared to bipolar disorder.

The level of interleukin 8 (IL-8) varied among these psychiatric disorders based on the network meta-analysis result.

​Overall, abnormal cytokine levels were found in psychiatric disorders, and some of the cytokines displayed differential characteristics in these disorders, especially IL-8, pointing to a role as potential biomarkers for general and differential diagnosis.
​Immune Control of
​Brain Physiology (2025)
#2  Mental Health is going to have to change a whole lot to be effective --- A big part of that is appreciating the large role of the immune system in mental and brain disorders.
American Psychiatric Association
Deleterious CNVs (Copy Number Variants) in Early-Onset Psychosis and Autism Spectrum Disorder
M. Anderson MD, Harvard Medical School 

T-Cell Immune Pathology in the Brain in Autism Spectrum Disorder (2020)
Proteotoxic Stress Fuels T Cell Exhaustion, Evasion

​(Oct. 2, 2025)
These convergent lines of evidence strongly support a model wherein impaired proteostasis drives T cell exhaustion, forming a previously underappreciated axis of immune dysfunction. Protein aggregation within T cells triggers a proteotoxic stress response sufficient to override activation signals and reprogram T cells into an exhausted state.
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The implications of these findings are far-reaching. They suggest new therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring protein homeostasis or alleviating proteotoxic stress in T cells could reinvigorate exhausted T cells, enhancing anti-tumor and anti-viral immunity. This paradigm shift opens investigative avenues in immunometabolism and cellular stress responses as critical determinants of T cell fate.