In a continuing effort to foster and stimulate interdisciplinary communications and collaborations between scientists, the INIP periodically presents conferences and workshops on state-of-the-art subjects and issues.

NIH Research Festival 2006:
Title: Neuro and Neuroendocrine Factors in Shock and Inflammatory Tissue Damage

This symposium will be held on October 17, 2006 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the Natcher Conference Center, Room F1/F2. Neural and neuroendocrine factors play an important role in modulating inflammation and vascular leakiness, and as such play an important role in shock and inflammatory tissue damage. This symposium will explore several neural and neuroendocrine factors including endocannabinoids, corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH), pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP), progesterone as well as the glucocorticoid receptor and other nuclear hormone receptors. Understanding these interactions will shed light on new treatment strategies for application of neural and neuroendocrine agents to treatment of shock and tissue damage.

2nd Annual INIP Biodefense Workshop 2005 Program:
Title: Neural & Neuroendocrine Host Factors in Shock and Immune Tissue Damage: Implications for Biodefense Treatment Strategies.

The conference was held on Monday, January 31, 2005, at the National Institutes of Health (Bldg 31, Conference Rm. 10). Following on the 2004 workshop that focused on the neuroendocrine stress response, the vagal inflammatory reflex, adenosine, and cannabinoids in shock and tissue damage, this event explored the role of neural and endocrine host responses in shock and immune mediated tissue damage in relation to the sympathetic nervous system/catecholamines, intracellular and molecular stress mediators (heat shock proteins) and their CNS regulation, estrogens and sex hormones, and interactions between these host defense factors, and identified additional potential novel treatment strategies for biodefense based on the molecular, cellular and systems interactions of these responses. The one-day program began with a review of general principles of inflammation and innate immunity and described the clinical characteristics of shock conditions. Subsequent sessions addressed specific advances in neural and neuroendocrine host responses that play a role in regulating immune responses. A round table panel discussion explored the implications of these response mechanisms for development of novel approaches to the treatment of toxic and septic exposures in biodefense. The workshop also related these factors together with those explored in depth in the 1st Annual Workshop (glucocorticoids, HPA axis, cholinergic/vagal system, adenosine, endocannabinoids) and suggested methods and models in which to study complex interactions between these systems in the context of shock and tissue damage with particular reference to biodefense treatment strategies.

Workshop/Round Table Participants included: Thomas Insel, Director NIMH (Host); Anthony Fauci, Director NIAID (Honorary Chair); Esther Sternberg, Director Integrative Neural Immune Program, NIMH/NIH NIMH (Chair); Arthur Friedlander, USAMRIID; Alan Ezekowitz, Harvard, MGH; Virginia Sanders, OSU; Mark Lyte, Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, UMN; Alexzander Asea, Boston Univ.; Monika Fleshner, U Col, Boulder; Irshad Chaudry UAB, Birmingham; Elizabeth Kovacs, Loyola University, Chicago; Neil Silverman, U Mass; Kevin Tracey, North Shore LIJ Research Institute; Michail Sitkovsky, Northeastern University; Tim Buckman, Washington Univ., St. Louis; Joost Oppenheim, NCI; Jane Welsh,Texas A&M; Sabra Klein, Johns Hopkins Sch. Public Health; Paul Green, UCSF; David Goldstein, NINDS; and Julian Thayer, NIA.

1st Annual INIP Biodefense Workshop 2004:
Title: Neuroendocrine and Neuroimmunological Factors in Shock and Tissue Damage: Implications for Biodefense Treatment Strategies.

The conference was presented Monday January 12, 2004, at the National Institutes of Health (Building 31, Conference Room 10). The goal of the workshop was to identify new targets for drug development in shock and tissue damage that could be relevant to biodefense. The workshop was a one-day program covering the general principles of neural and neuroendocrine factors in infectious and inflammatory disease, basic mechanisms of tissue damage in sepsis, and the implications of breakthroughs in understanding these mechanisms for novel approaches to the treatment of toxic and septic exposures in biodefense. In particular it focused on novel targets outside the immune system, based on recent studies showing the important role of various neural and neuroendocrine factors in shock and tissue damage (i.e. adenosine receptors, nuclear hormone receptors, cannabinoid receptors and cholinergic factors).

Workshop/Round Table Participants included: Thomas Insel, Director NIMH (Host); Anthony Fauci, Director NIAID (Honorary Chair); Esther Sternberg, NIMH (Co-Chair); Michail Sitkovsky, NIAID (Co-Chair); Charles Hackett, NIAID; Cox Terhorst, Harvard University; Joel Linden, University of Virginia; Mahtab Moayeri, NIAID; George Kunos, Scientific Director, NIAAA; Pal Pacher, NIAAA; Jane Welsh, Texas A&M University; Jeanette Webster, NIMH; Kevin Tracey, North Shore-LIJ Research Institute; David Goldstein, NINDS; Julian Thayer, NIA; Audrey Penn, Deputy Director NINDS; and Richard Johnson, Johns Hopkins University.

The Science of Mind-Body Interactions - an Exploration of Integrative Mechanisms, was the first of the conferences hosted by the Neural Immune Program. The conference was presented March 26 - 28, 2001, at the Masur Auditorium, Clinical Center, NIH, and explored such questions as: how does the social world get literally "under our skin"?; what are the mechanisms linking emotions and health?; and how does the brain mediate between events in our environment and changes in our autonomic, endocrine, and neurological functioning?

Sponsored by: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Mind-Body Interactions; National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Integrative Neural Immune Program; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of the Director, Office of Intramural Research.

Co-sponsored by:National Cancer Institute (NCI), Basic Biobehavioral Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences; National Cancer Institute (NCI), Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Center on Sleep Disorders Research; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases; National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS); National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), Pain & Neurosensory Mechanisms Branch; National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA); National Institute on Aging (NIA); National Institute of Health (NIH), Office of the Director, Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research; National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM); National Institute of Health (NIH), Office of Research on Women�s Health (ORWH); National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

Webcast live in entirety on the Internet Currently available to be viewed in its entirety through NIH Videocasting. Individuals interested in viewing this conference should access NIH Video Casting (http://videocast.nih.gov/), and select "Past Events", and "Conferences". Then scroll by date to the selection.

Neural Immune connections in chemotherapy effects on cognition and mood.
Mini-symposia presented at the NIH Research Festival 2001 The minisymposium addresses molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural immune interaction underlying the effects of chemotherapy (including immunotherapy) on cognitive function and mood. Recent studies indicate that melanoma and AIDS patients treated with interleukins or interferon often develop symptoms of depression or suicidality in relation to treatment. Chemotherapy of brain tumors may also be associated with cognitive deficits. The symposium explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms of these effects, including blood brain barrier permeability to such immune mediators, direct effects of cytokines on mood and role of cytokine receptor expression in the CNS. A detailed understanding these mechanisms has important therapeutic implications for management these illnesses.