In patients with chronic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, there has been a limited understanding of how this inflammation affects the brain.
In a new study from Michigan Medicine and elsewhere, researchers examined this issue.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory and autoimmune condition with nasty levels of inflammation that can affect a person’s joints and the rest of their body, inducing fatigue, sleep and creating cognitive difficulties.
Even though it has been assumed for a long time that the inflammation we see in the blood is impacting the brain, scientists didn’t know precisely where and how those changes in the brain were actually happening.
The research team used a data set of 54 rheumatoid arthritis patients carefully constructed and characterized.
Using functional and structural neuroimaging of the data set at baseline and six months, the research team examined whether higher levels of peripheral inflammation were associated with brain connectivity and structure.
The team took the levels of inflammation in their peripheral blood, just as it would be done clinically by a rheumatologist to monitor the severity of their disease and how it’s being controlled
They found profound and consistent results in a couple of areas of the brain that were becoming connected to several brain networks.
They then looked again six months later and saw similar patterns, and this replication of results is not that common in neuroimaging studies.”
The team then examined the functional connectivity of 264 regions of the brain and identified increased connectivity patterns in patients experiencing heightened levels of inflammation.
The finding shows how inflammation in the periphery may be actually altering functional connections in the brain and playing a role in some of the cognitive symptoms we see in rheumatoid arthritis.
The study supports the idea that rheumatoid arthritis inflammation targets the brain and not just the joints.
By relating these advanced neuroimaging measures back to the patient experience, future targeting of central inflammatory pathways may greatly enhance the quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and potentially other chronic inflammatory disorders.
One author of the study is Andrew Schrepf, Ph.D., a research investigator at Michigan Medicine’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center.
The study is published in Nature Communications.
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