What is cell danger response (CDR)?

CDR is a concept developed by Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, and he puts it this way:

"Cells have a limited number of ways they can respond to threats. An important consequence of this is that evolutionary selection preserves similar cellular responses to diverse forms of threat. The cell danger response (CDR) is an evolutionarily conserved cellular metabolic response that is activated when a cell encounters a chemical, physical, or microbial threat that could injure or kill the cell. Common microbial threats are viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Physical threats include heat, salt, or pH shock, or UV or ionizing radiation. Chemical forms of danger include heavy and trace metals like lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and nickel, certain electrophilic aromatic chemicals like the plasticizer bisphenol A, the chemical flame retardants like the brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and certain halogenated pesticides like chlorpyrifos and DDT. Psychological trauma, particularly during childhood, can also activate the cell danger response, produce chronic inflammation, and increase the risk of many disorders (Ehlert, 2013). Mixtures of these factors and susceptible genotypes have synergistic effects. The total load of triggers is integrated by metabolism and regulates the CDR. Mitochondria are evolved to sense all of these threats according to the induced changes in electron flow available for normal metabolism. This review will emphasize communication between mitochondria and the nucleus, and show how many pathways of extracellular, cell–cell communication are ultimately traceable to mitochondrial metabolism. The cell danger response is coordinated in the brain via chemosensory integration of the whole body and microbiome metabolism. Abnormal persistence of the CDR ultimately leads to altered organ function and behavior, and results in chronic disease."

What is cell danger response (CDR)?Updated 4 months ago