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Relationship: 1687
Title
Neuroinflammation leads to Cell injury/death
Upstream event
Downstream event
AOPs Referencing Relationship
| AOP Name | Adjacency | Weight of Evidence | Quantitative Understanding | Point of Contact | Author Status | OECD Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binding of electrophilic chemicals to SH(thiol)-group of proteins and /or to seleno-proteins involved in protection against oxidative stress during brain development leads to impairment of learning and memory | adjacent | Moderate | Brendan Ferreri-Hanberry (send email) | Open for citation & comment | WPHA/WNT Endorsed | |
| Increased glutamate leads to economic burden through reduced IQ and non-cholinergic mechanisms | adjacent | High | Arthur Author (send email) | Under development: Not open for comment. Do not cite |
Taxonomic Applicability
Sex Applicability
| Sex | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Male | |
| Female |
Life Stage Applicability
| Term | Evidence |
|---|---|
| All life stages |
Cells of the innate (microglia and astrocytes) and of the adaptive (infiltrating monocytes and lymphocytes) immune system of the brain have various ways to kill neighboring cells. This is in part due to evolutionary-conserved mechanisms evolved to kill virus-infected cells or tumor cells; in part it is a bystander phenomenon due to the release of mediators that should activate other cells and contribute to the killing of invading micro-organisms. An exaggerated or unbalanced activation of immune cells can thus lead to parenchymal (neuronal) cell death (Gehrmann et al., 1995). Mediators known to have such effects comprise components of the complement system and cytokines/death receptor ligands triggering programmed cell death (Dong and Benveniste, 2001). Various secreted proteases (e.g. matrix metalloproteases), lipid mediators (e.g. ceramide or gangliosides) or reactive oxygen species can contribute to bystander death of neurons (Chao et al., 1995; Nakajima et al., 2002; Brown and Bal-Price, 2003; Kraft and Harry, 2011; Taetzsch and Block, 2013). The equimolar production of superoxide and NO from glial cells can lead to high steady levels of peroxynitrite, which is a very potent cytotoxicant (Yuste et al., 2015). Already stressed neurons, with an impaired anti-oxidant defence system, are more sensitive to such mediators (Xu et al., 2015). Healthy cells continuously display anti "eat-me" signals, while damaged and stressed neurons/neurites display "eat-me" signals that may be recognized by microglia as signals to start phagocytosis (Neher et al., 2012) or by astrocytes (Wakida et al., 2018; Byun and Chung, 2018; Gomez-Arboledas et al., 2018; Morizawa et al., 2017). Reactive astrocytes are also able to release neurotoxic molecules (Mena and Garcia de Ybenes, 2008; Niranjan, 2014). However, astrocytes may also be protective due to their capacity to quench free radicals and secrete neurotrophic factors. The activation of astrocytes may reduce neurotrophic support to neurons (for review, Mena and Garcia de Ybenes, 2008).
| ID | Experimental Design | Species | Upstream Observation | Downstream Observation | Citation (first author, year) | Notes |
|---|
| Title | First Author | Biological Plausibility |
Dose Concordance |
Temporal Concordance |
Incidence Concordance |
|---|
Biological Plausibility
Dose Concordance Evidence
Temporal Concordance Evidence
Incidence Concordance Evidence
Uncertainties and Inconsistencies
In 3D rat brain cell-cultures, co-administration of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 (10 ng/ml) together with non-cytotoxic concentrations of MeHgCl (3 x 10-7 M) for 10 days protected from the mercury-induced decreased in MAP2 immunostaining, suggesting a positive effect of IL-6, in accord with its descibed trophic activity (Eskes et al., 2002).
The consequences of neuroinflammation depends rather on the balance between the pro-inflammatory/neurodegenerative and anti-inflammatory/alternative/neuro-reparative side, of the duration and probably of the cellular context. There is not enough literature describing an inhibition of mercury-induced neuroinflammation and the potential protection on neurons.
Response-response Relationship
Time-scale
Known Feedforward/Feedback loops influencing this KER
Most experimental evidences derived from mouse and rat studies.