Journal of IiME Volume 6 Issue 1 (June 2012) neurodegenerative diseases. Observational studies in human post-mortem material and studies in animal models seek to define the contribution that this innate immune response makes to the pathogenesis and rate of progression of these diseases. It is well recognized that age is a significant risk factor for diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s diseases and that elderly people commonly have systemic comorbidities that give rise to systemic inflammation. There is a growing body of evidence to show that systemic infection and inflammation impact on the progression of chronic neurodegeneration in animal models: this involves the switching of the microglia phenotype from a relatively benign phenotype to an aggressive tissue damaging phenotype by the systemic inflammation. Clinical studies in patients with Alzheimer’s disease show that chronic systemic inflammation and acute infections are associated with accelerated cognitive decline and exacerbation of the symptoms of sickness. These observations show that immune to brain communication normally part of our mechanisms for fighting infection may become maladaptive in those with degenerative diseases of the brain. These findings offer new routes to therapeutic interventions to improve the quality of life of those suffering from chronic neurodegenerative disease. Professor Maria Fitzgerald An Overview of Chonic Pain Mechanisms Professor of Developmental Neurobiology Dept Anatomy & Developmental Biology, University College London. Maria Fitzgerald graduated in Physiological Sciences at Oxford University and studied for a PhD in Physiology at UCL. She was awarded a postdoctoral MRC training fellowship to work with Professor Patrick Wall in the Cerebral Functions Group at UCL and remained in that group as a postdoctoral fellow until starting her own research group in the Anatomy & Developmental Biology Dept at UCL. She became a Professor of Developmental Neurobiology in 1995 and was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000. Maria is Scientific Director of the Paediatric Pain Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) Research Centre at UCL www.pprg.ucl.ac.uk, and is a member of a number of research boards including the Medical Research Council Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, the Scientific Board of the Migraine Trust and the French National Research Agency (ANR). She is an Editorial Board member of ‘Pain’ and of ‘Pain Research and Clinical Management. Maria has published over 130 research papers and reviews in the area of pain neurobiology (taken from UCL site http://www.ucl.ac.uk/npp/research/mfi). Abstract: Chronic pain arises from plastic changes in the peripheral and central nervous system. These changes are triggered and may be maintained by an insult to tissues, organs or to the nervous system itself. Damage to the nervous system itself can result in neuropathic pain, a particularly unpleasant chronic pain which is especially difficult to treat. Because neural connections within the sensory and nociceptive systems have been altered, pain can take on a ‘life of its own’ and no longer require the presence of tissue damage. As a result, the pain will often persist beyond the resolution of the original injury. Thus chronic pain has a clear biological origin, but that origin lies within the nervous system itself and if we are to prevent or treat it effectively we need to understand these neural changes. Poor pain recovery following the resolution of a physical insult can lead to the conclusion that patients are catastrophizing or have aberrant health beliefs, while in fact defined neurobiological changes in neural pain pathways are the source of the problem. This lecture will provide an overview of our current understanding of chronic pain mechanisms. Dr Mario Delgado Neuropeptides and their role in chronic disease Mario Delgado Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine, CSIC, Granada, Spain As a neuroimmunologist, his main research focus has been to understand the bidirectional communication that exists between immune www.investinme.org Page 101 of 108
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