LPS-induced sickness behavior is not affected by selenium but is switched off by psychogenic stress in rats

Sickness behavior (SB) is considered part of the adaptive behavioral and neuroimmune changes that occur in response to inflammatory processes. However, SB is a motivational state modulated by the environmental context. The objective of this study was to evaluate if selenium could ameliorate symptoms of SB and if stress would affect these responses. We induced SB in rats using lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We choose selenium based on our findings of LPS-exposure decreasing selenium levels in rats. We exposed these rats to a psychogenic stress and studied motivational modulation paradigms, such as cure of the organism, preservation of the species, and fight or flight. We studied ultrasonic vocalizations, open-field behaviors, body weight, and IL-1 beta and IFN-gamma serum levels. LPS-induced SB was evidenced by decreased motor/exploratory activity and increased proinflammatory mediators’ levels. Selenium treatment did not exert beneficial effects on SB, revealing that probably the selenium deficiency was not related to SB. When analyzed with the stress paradigm, the behavior of rats was differentially affected. LPS did not affect behavior in the presence of stress. SB was abrogated during stressor events to prioritize survival behaviors, such as fight-or-flight. Contrarily, the association of LPS, selenium, and stress induced SB even during stressor events, revealing that this combination induced a cumulative toxic effect.