Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that starts before the age of 16 and is associated with pain and swellings of the joints but often also with severe fatigue. Especially this condition is characterized as overwhelming and as a serious reduction of life quality. Understanding the complex interactions between the immune and the neural systems of these patients could provide novel possibilities for Pharma-Food interventions in order to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from chronic inflammation. To this end, pharmacologists and rheumatologists from Utrecht university as well as biopsychologists from Bochum analyzed serum samples from JIA patients with an extremely sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography and discovered signatures of an important imbalance between glutamate and various monoamines. These major changes of the brain’s neurochemistry could explain the negative implications of JIA for well-being, including fatigue, cognition, anxiety, and depression.

Korte-Bouws, G.A.H., Albers, E., Voskamp, M., Hendriksen, H., De Leeuw, L. R., Güntürkün, O., de Roock, S., Vastert, S. J., and Korte, S.M., Juvenile arthritis patients suffering from chronic inflammation have increased activity of both IDO and GTP-CH1 pathways, but decreased BH4 efficacy: implications for well-being, including fatigue, cognitive impairment, anxiety and depression, Pharmaceutical, 2019, 12(1): 9.