Immune biomarkers of early-life adversity and exposure to stress and violence - Searching outside the streetlight
Short Summary: This editorial comments on a recent study by Rasmussen & colleagues (2019), which assessed soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), a potentially useful immune biomarker of early-life adversity. This discovery offers a foundation for precision medicine strategies in pediatrics to prevent longer-term impacts of stress on the body that confers a risk of disease across the life course. Large data sets, including this study of suPAR and beyond, will be crucial to the identification of novel markers with broad population relevance. However, to progress from markers to biologically informed treatments, we must elucidate for whom, under what circumstances, and by what mechanisms trauma leads to inflammation.
Authors: Bush NR, Aschbacher K.