Cortico-limbic restructuring and atherosclerosis: a stressful liaison

Graphical AbstractOpen in new tabDownload slidePsychological stress reshapes neurovascular brain–body interactions to affect atherosclerosis. In patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic psychological stress enhances cortico-limbic activities of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and amygdala (AMG), and decreases neural integrity of the uncinated fasciculus (UFN) connecting both structures in the orbitofrontal and lateral lobes of the cortex. This central neural restructuring may lead to enhanced peripheral leucopoiesis in the bone marrow and lymphoid tissues, and possibly leucocyte recruitment within adventitia and atherosclerotic plaques. Eventually, this neural network can underly the higher cardiovascular risk of PTSD patients observed across a wide core of the literature.