Neuroendocrine Mechanisms, An Issue of Rheumatic Disease Clinics (The Clinics: Internal Medicine)

This issue covers the latest developments in the understanding neuroendocrine mechanisms in rheumatic diseases. The role of hormones in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and fibromyalgia is reviewed. Also included are articles on sympathetic neurotransmitters, autonomic dysfunction, and neurogenic aspects of inflammation.

Mauricio Cutolo founded in 2000 the modern science of capillaroscopy and microcirculation and chaired Study Groups on Capillaroscopy at ACR and EULAR, including both live and online EULAR courses since 2004. In 2010 he edited the original atlas on capillaroscopy. Dr Cutolo is a former EULAR President and Chairman of the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR), Chairman of the Scientific Commission of the Italian Society for Rheumatology (SIR), Advisor of the EULAR School of Rheumatology Education Committee (EsOR) and International Adviser of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). He was awarded 2024 ACR Master (MACR) and 2025 EULAR Meritorious Service in Rheumatology. MC serves as Deputy-Chair of the European Commission network on Rare and Complex Connective Tissue Disease (ReCONNET-ERN) and is chair of the ERN ReCONNET WG on Education & Training. He has authored more than 800 publications and has over 50,000 citations to his credit.

Rainer Straub received his M.D. degree from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 1988. He began his training in Internal Medicine at University of Freiburg and, since 1991, in Regensburg, Germany. In the year 1994, he got a fellowship to study basic aspects of the neuro-immune synapse in the Dept. of Pharmacology at the University of Vienna, Austria. Back in Regensburg, he started a Rheumatology fellowship. In 1995, he joined the faculty at University of Regensburg as Assistant Professor of Medicine. In 1997, he received his Rheumatology board certification, and in the same year he became Head of the Laboratories of the Dept. of Internal Medicine I at Regensburg University. Since 2001, he is full professor for Experimental Medicine at Regensburg University.

Dr. Straub’s research interest has focused on neuroendocrine immune aspects of the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and mechanisms of inflammation. He was among the first to demonstrate the loss of anti-inflammatory sympathetic nerve fibers in inflammatory lesions. Loss of these nerve fibers is most probably an active process mediated by nerve repellent factors. Dr. Straub also worked on abnormalities of steroid hormone metabolism in rheumatoid arthritis. They figured out the inadequate secretion of glucocorticoids and androgens in relation to inflammation. His laboratory has also worked extensively on the nerve fiber - immune cell contact, the neuro-immune synapse in the spleen. In recent years, he focused on aspects of evolutionary medicine, energy regulation, and volume regulation to explain disease sequelae in chronic inflammatory diseases.

He was President of the PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society (Journal: Brain Behavior & Immunity) in 2009/2010, Coordinator of the Neuroendocrine Immune Study Group of the American College of Rheumatology, and speaker of the German Endocrine Immune Brain Network (GEBIN). He gave the prestigious Philip S. Hench Lecture of the American College of Rheumatology in 2013, and he gave the Norman Cousin Memorial Lecture of the PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society in 2015. He was a lecturer at the Nobel Conference No.44. He has published over 350 articles and chapters and has edited or written several books. He serves/served on several Editorial Boards, for example, Arthritis & Rheumatism and Rheumatology. Dr. Straub is presently the speaker of a German Research Foundation (DFG) – funded Research Unit at the University of Regensburg.