Chronic inflammation rages like a fire in the body. Fortunately, researchers are developing new treatments. (Photo by Nicholas Forder)
Inflammation is one of the body's powerful defense mechanisms that helps us fight infections and heal wounds.
“If you don’t have inflammation, you’re going to die,” Ed Ranger, a professor of chronic inflammation at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., told Live Science. “It’s that simple.”
However, when a short-term reaction develops into a condition that lasts for months or years, chronic inflammation can contribute to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and cardiovascular disease.
Previously, doctors tried to combat these diseases by suppressing inflammation entirely, which led to unwanted side effects and did not always produce results. But now scientists are developing treatments that do not eliminate inflammation entirely, but reprogram the cells that support it.
In cases such as cancer, where tumors exploit the healing properties of inflammation to grow, new approaches take the opposite approach – activating inflammation so that it can more effectively attack mutated cells.
Depending on the situation, inflammation can be beneficial or harmful, but thanks to new research, it can be controlled in either case.
“If you can do that, you allow the immune system and the inflammatory response to do their job properly,” Ranger said.
Acute and chronic inflammation
The white blood cells pictured above play an important role in the body's inflammatory response to pathogens.
Inflammation is the body’s natural response to physical injury, infection, or toxins, and has been discussed by physicians since ancient times. The word “inflammare” is Latin for “to set on fire,” and in the second century, Galen, physician to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, described five “cardinal signs”: heat, redness, swelling, pain, and loss of function.
What these ancient physicians were describing were signs of acute inflammation. Redness and heat are caused by dilation of blood vessels, which bring more cells to the injured area, while the release of substances such as prostaglandins causes pain and swelling. To prevent infection, the immune system also produces chemicals called pyrogens, which increase the production of prostaglandins, causing fever.
“The point of inflammation is to control the infection, stop it from spreading, and then allow the healing process to begin.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
