Beta-casomorphins-7 in infants on different type of feeding and different levels of psychomotor development.

Casomorphins are the most important during the first year of life, when postnatal formation is most active and milk is the main source of both nutritive and biologically active material for infants. This study was conducted on a total of 90 infants, of which 37 were fed with breast milk and 53 were fed with formula containing cow milk. The study has firstly indicated substances with immunoreactivity of human (irHCM) and bovine (irBCM) beta-casomorphins-7 in blood plasma of naturally and artificially fed infants, respectively. irHCM and irBCM were detected both in the morning before feeding (basal level), and 3h after feeding. Elevation of irHCM and irBCM levels after feeding was detected mainly in infants in the first 3 months of life. Chromatographic characterization of the material with irBCM has demonstrated that it has the same molecular mass and polarity as synthetic bovine beta-casomorphin-7. The highest basal irHCM was observed in breast-fed infants with normal psychomotor development and muscle tone. In contrast, elevated basal irBCM was found in formula-fed infants showing delay in psychomotor development and heightened muscle tone. Among formula-fed infants with normal development, the rate of this parameter directly correlated to basal irBCM. The data indicate that breast feeding has an advantage over artificial feeding for infants' development during the first year of life and support the hypothesis for deterioration of bovine casomorphin elimination as a risk factor for delay in psychomotor development and other diseases such as autism.

Personality, coping style, and constitutional neuroimmunology.

Risk of developing certain diseases correlates with human personality. Cardiologists have defined Type "A" personalities as coronary-prone. Associated psychological peculiarities are easily angered, competitive, impatient and hard-driving. Psychologically-opposite people who are prone to suppress emotions and avoid conflicts (Type "C"), have a high risk of infectious diseases and certain forms of cancer. The development of contemporary biology and medicine determined an important role of the neuroendocrine and immune systems in these correlations. The peculiarity of human personality, as much as of animal behavioral patterns, is strongly expressed under stress conditions. The strategies of stress coping display a normal distribution in the human and wild animal populations, with truly passive and active coping styles located at the outermost regions of the curve. However, there are a number of strategies to breed experimental animals with extreme coping styles; animals selected for a passive coping style to acute stress show marked activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and low stimulation of the sympathetic-adrenal system; both are associated with immunosuppression. An opposite reaction of the neuroendocrine system has been shown in animals with an active coping style to stress; this was associated with the signs of immunostimulation. Similarly, people with passive coping style (type "C") might be at higher risk of infectious diseases and cancer, while people with active coping style (type "A") might be predisposed to coronary, allergic, and autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, pain, decreased productivity, and anxiety, all common in patients with different diseases, are additional stressful entities. Thus, an adequate coping with a disease is an important approach to improve life quality and disease prognosis. Therefore, psychological and psychopharmacotherapeutic interventions that enhance effective coping should have beneficial effects in patients with immune-mediated diseases.