Innate immunity impacts social-cognitive functioning in people with multiple sclerosis and healthy individuals: Implications for IL-1ra and urinary immune markers

Jason A Turner; Christine Padgett; Skye McDonald; Kiran D K Ahuja; Heather M Francis; Chai K Lim; Cynthia A Honan

doi:10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100254

Innate immunity impacts social-cognitive functioning in people with multiple sclerosis and healthy individuals: Implications for IL-1ra and urinary immune markers

Brain Behav Immun Health. 2021 Apr 14:14:100254. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100254. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Authors

Jason A Turner¹, Christine Padgett¹, Skye McDonald², Kiran D K Ahuja³, Heather M Francis⁴, Chai K Lim⁵, Cynthia A Honan¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychological Sciences, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart and Launceston, Australia.
² School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
³ School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

Social-cognitive difficulties can negatively impact interpersonal communication, shared social experience, and meaningful relationships. This pilot investigation examined the relationship between social-cognitive functioning and inflammatory markers in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and demographically-matched healthy individuals. Additionally, we compared the immune marker profile in serum and urine-matched samples. Social cognitive functioning was objectively assessed using The Awareness of Social Inference Test - Short (TASIT-S) and subjectively assessed using self-reports of abilities in emotion recognition, emotional empathy, and cognitive theory of mind. In people with MS and healthy individuals, there were moderate-to-large negative relationships between pro-inflammatory biomarkers (serum IL-1β, IL-17, TNF-α, IP-10, MIP-1α, and urine IP-10, MIP-1β) of the innate immune system and social-cognitive functioning. In MS, a higher serum concentration of the anti-inflammatory marker IL-1ra was associated with better social-cognitive functioning (i.e., self-reported emotional empathy and TASIT-S sarcasm detection performance). However, there were mixed findings for anti-inflammatory serum markers IL-4 and IL-10. Overall, our findings indicate a relationship between pro-inflammatory cytokines and social-cognitive abilities. Future studies may provide greater insight into biologically-derived inflammatory processes, sickness behaviour, and their connection with social cognition.

Keywords: Emotion perception; Emotional empathy; Inflammation; Innate immunity; Multiple sclerosis; Sarcasm; Sickness behaviour; Social cognition; TASIT-S; Theory of mind.