'If you don't have inflammation, then you'll die': How scientists are reprogramming the body's natural superpower

'If you don't have inflammation, then you'll die': How scientists are reprogramming the body's natural superpower (msn.com)

 

Just to add some balance.....everyone who has inflammation......also dies.

 

The idea that acute inflammation 'transitions' into chronic is garbage. It has been around since I was a doctoral student and it made no sense then. Diseases due to chronic inflammation have an error in the generation of inflammation from the outset. Acute inflammation shuts off when the mess (usually bacteria or bruising) has been mopped up because there is no more irritation. Your sore finger gets better precisely when you dig that splinter out.

 

While a good idea--controlling immune system function--I think it's not going to be simple. Our immune systems are very complex, with lots of interactions with other systems in the body. They're balanced as the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Turning off one function could have serious unexpected effects. What if you turn off the response to a specific antibody (long term), and 20 years later, patients start developing cancer because the immune system evolved to use that antibody to prevent that cancer?

I agree with Jonathan that they seem to be misunderstanding how inflammation works. At least some chronic inflammation is because the immune cells forget that a certain protein is supposed to be there, so it's the allergen that becomes chronic. There might be some situations where the immune system fails and becomes chronically locked in the wrong state, but that doesn't mean that all chronic inflammation is acute inflammation that "transitions".