Enkephalins and Endorphins Stress and the Immune System

Is this a time for a sleeping giant to rise? We have known since study of the lymphocyte and plasma cells really began in earnest in the early 1940's that the pituitary adrenal axis under intimate control of the hypothalamus could influence immunological functions profoundly. We have also known for at least 20 years in my recollection that female sex hor­ mones can maximize certain immunity functions while male sex hormones tend to suppress many immunological reactions. The thyroid hormones accelerate antibody production while at the same time sp~eding up de­ gradation of antibodies and immunoglobulins and thyroidectomy decreases the rate of antibody production. Further, much evidence has accumulated indicating that the brain, yes even the mind, can influence in significant ways susceptibility to infections, cancers and to development of a variety of autoimmune diseases. More than 20 years ago, my colleagues and I convinced ourselves, if no one else, that hypnosis can exert major in­ fluences on the effector limb of the classical atopic allergic reactions. We showed with Aaron Papermaster that the Prausnitz-Kustner reaction may be greatly inhibited, indeed largely controlled, by post-hypnotic suggestion. And it was not even necessary for us to publish our discovery because scientists in John Humphrey's laboratory at Mill Hill Research Center in London had beaten us to the punch. They described hypnotic control of both the PK reaction and delayed allergic reactions to tuberculin by hypnosis.

Enkephalins-Endorphins: Stress and the Immune System.- Introduction: The Ying-Yang Hypothesis of Immunomodulation.- Stress and the Immune System.- Candidate Opioid Peptides for Interaction with the Immune System.- Control Mechanisms in the Enzyme Hydrolysis of Adrenal-Released Enkephalins.- Studies of the Endogenous Opioid System in the Human Stress Response.- Exercise Stress and Endogenous Opiates.- Effects of Coping and Noncoping with Stressful Events on the Immune System.- Depression, Hormones and Immunity.- Endogenous Opiod Systems, Stress, and Cancer.- Effects of Stress and Morphine on Natural Killer Cell Activity and on the Mammary Tumor Development.- Endocrine and Immunological Responses to Acute Stress.- Regulatory Circuits of the Immune, Endocrine and Nervous System.- A Complete Regulatory Loop Between the Immune and Neuroendocrine Systems Operates Through Common Signal Molecules (Hormones) and Receptors.- Endorphins: A Link Between Personality, Stress, Emotions, Immunity, and Disease?.- Involvement of Non-Opiate Peptides in Psychoneuroimmunological Modulations.- Regulation of Human Cellular Immune Responses by Glucocorticosteriods.- Estrogen-Mediated Immunomodulation.- Effects on the Immune System of Lesioning and Stimulation of the Nervous System: Neuroimmunomodulation.- Effects of Enkephalins/Endorphins and Related Substances on Specific Immune Functions.- Enkephalins: Mediators of Stress-Induced Immunomodulation.- Relationship Between Lymphokine and Opiatergic Modulation of Lymphocyte Proliferation.- Enkephalins as Molecules of Lymphocyte Activation and Modifiers of the Biological Response.- The Influence of Endogenous Opioid Peptides on Venous Granulocytes.- Immunosuppressive Effects of the Opiopeptins.- T-Cell E-Receptor Modulation By Opiates, Opiods andOther Behaviorally Active Substances.- Significant Role of Receptor Coupling in the Neuropeptide-Induced Alterations of Macrophage Cytotoxicity.- Hormonal Modulation of the Human Autologous Mixed Lymphocyte Reaction.- Implications Involving Autoimmune Mechanisms to the PCP Receptor in Schizophrenia.- Effects of Morphine Opiates on Immune Function.- Opioid Peptide Effects on Leukocyte Migration.- Neuropeptides are Chemoattractants for Human Monocytes and Tumor Cells: A Basis for Mind-Body Communication.- Early Clinical Trials of Methionine Enkephalin(In Vivo).- Methionine Enkephalin: Immunomodulator in Normal Volunteers (In Vivo).- Methionine Enkephalin: Clinical Pharmacology.- Methionine Enkephalin: T-Cell Enhancement in Normal Volunteers (In Vivo).- Methionine Enkephalin: Enhancement of T-Cells in Patients with Kaposis’ Sarcoma, AIDS, and Lung Cancer (In Vivo).- Epilogue.- Contributors.