Elevated immune-inflammatory signaling in mood disorders: a new therapeutic target?. (September 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McNamara, Robert K; Lotrich, Francis E
• Is Part Of: Expert review of neurotherapeutics. Volume 12:Number 9(2012)
• Page Start: 1143
• Page End: 1161
• Publication Date: 2012-09
• Subjects: arachidonic acid -- bipolar disorder -- C-reactive protein -- coronary heart disease -- cytokines -- immunology -- inflammation -- major depressive disorder -- omega-3 fatty acids -- prostaglandins -- serotonin; Neuropharmacology -- Periodicals; 615.7805
• DOI: 10.1586/ern.12.98
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1473-7175

Abstract

Converging translational evidence has implicated elevated immune-inflammatory signaling activity in the pathoetiology of mood disorders, including major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. This is supported in part by cross-sectional evidence for increased levels of proinflammatory eicosanoids, cytokines and acute-phase proteins during mood episodes, and prospective longitudinal evidence for the emergence of mood symptoms in response to chronic immune-inflammatory activation. In addition, mood-stabilizer and atypical antipsychotic medications downregulate initial components of the immune-inflammatory signaling pathway, and adjunctive treatment with anti-inflammatory agents augment the therapeutic efficacy of antidepressant, mood stabilizer and atypical antipsychotic medications. Potential pathogenic mechanisms linked with elevated immune-inflammatory signaling include perturbations in central serotonin neurotransmission and progressive white matter pathology. Both heritable genetic factors and environmental factors including dietary fatty-acid composition may act in concert to sustain elevated immune-inflammatory signaling. Collectively, these data suggest that elevated immune-inflammatory signaling is a mechanism that is relevant to the pathoetiology of mood disorders, and may therefore represent a new therapeutic target for the development of more effective treatments.