IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL STRESS SUSCEPTIBILITY USING GENOMIC AND IMMUNE BIOMARKERS

Significant adverse impact of various forms of psychological stress on susceptibility to infection, altered wound healing, increased prevalence and severity of hypersensitivity diseases, and even increased mortality in cancer patients has been well described. Yet these observations are limited by often unpredictable individual responses to various stressful situations. These associations are further clouded by natural variability among diverse forms of and responses to chronic life stressors and associated comorbid conditions. This is particularly true for inflammatory diseases where gene/external environmental interactions are well-described. What is much less understood is gene-internal environmental (i.e., psychological) interactions that commonly affect disease activity and possible susceptibility. We have used selected single nucleotide polymorphisms of stress hormone and regulatory cytokine receptors to categorize both baseline and stress-associated immune parameters for the a priori classification of individuals with the most stress susceptible immune systems to identify those most responsive to a stress reduction/management-based intervention.