RE: Journal club - the anticipatory immune response of pain-sensing neurons in skin
I finally printed your article out, took it aside and read it in a quiet place. This material is challenging for me, but still there was much to mine. I'm very interested in the immune response, which is really the heart of your article, especially immune responses that are generated far from the site of an event. Your speculation about psoriasis flares coincided exactly with where my mind was going as I finished your piece.
Systemic lupus came to mind. This disease is famously triggered by just about anything. An assault on the body sends signals throughout to go on high alert, and a flare, unrelated to the original event, will ensue. This is similar to a psoriasis flare. Of course, in lupus, while the original antagonist might not be dangerous, the ensuing flare can be.
Very perplexing for lupus patients and treating physicians. Whenever an assault on the body (or mind) occurs, there is always consideration of an indirectly related immune response.
While this paper was hard for me to work my way through, because the technical language is unfamiliar to me, still there was much value in reading.
Thank you for taking the time to write and explain these important matters. You turn SteemSTEM into a laboratory for learning--for scientists and non-scientists.
Thanks for this great feedback once again. That's is a very interesting connection you made there. There are not many studies on this, but there is some correlational evidence, in support of picture of SLE flare that you drew. The TRPV1+ neurons seem to be hyper-responsive in SLE. For instance, in this poster abstract the authors suggest that skin reaction to capsaicin (the chemical activator of TRPV1+ neurons) is much stronger in SLE patients. Of course we would need much more evidence than this, but I think its a promising direction to ponder in. Actually, this whole anticipatory immunity opens up a whole new pandora's box. For instance, we know chronic pain can be path to depression. We know depression is associated with low grade inflammation in body. Is there a connection between these two dots? I don't know. It's a far fetched hunch. But it's worth giving a shot to this experiment.
Also, my apologies that I got a bit carried away this time and didn't simplify the technical terms. I know I ended up talking as if I am presenting this in my lab. This feedback would be helpful when I write the next journal club post.
Don't modify your writing style because I find it challenging. My training is in history, humanities, languages and literature (yeah, I really sampled everything in the liberal arts!). Science is a new horizon for me. I love it, have always loved it, but lack some of the tools a trained scientist would have. Reading your articles, and others on SteemSTEM.io, helps me to learn. There's a saying that if you want to be a better chess players, then engage with better players.
Write for the community. I will wander around, sort of like an avid tourist, and learn from all of you as I go. It's an adventure. And, as with an aspiring chess player, I'll get better :))
No, I am not going to modify my writing style. More like improve it and leave no jargon is left unturned. The reason I love to write about science is so that information reaches everyone. Sometimes it does get difficult. For instance, that Rosa26 concept, for us at lab its an everyday thing. But while writing it I was unsure until the end, if the message would go across or not. It is something which may require a post of its own. The challenge is how to not omit it and yet make sure that a 12-year-old reading it would have all nice images popping in their head. I like knowing if I did a good job at that or not. Which is why I love feedback like this. I am not going to change my chess game, I am just going to open up more on why that certain move made sense to me. 🙂🙃
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I look forward to learning from you, and to upping my chess game.