Immune mediated depressive behaviour: causes, consequences and therapeutic opportunities
Final Report Abstract
Acute infections are often accompanied by unspecific behavioral symptoms termed as sickness behavior. Strong similarities exist between symptoms of sickness behavior and major depression. Consistently, chronic immune diseases are frequently associated with depressive symptoms and a therapeutically induced immune activation by single cytokine therapies such as treatment with interferon (IFN)‐α can lead to the development of depressive episodes. Such causality has led to the concept of an immune mediated depression, which requires detailed investigations and the establishment of an adequate animal model. In the present project, we employed a mouse model and addressed the following aims: Can depressive behaviour be induced in mice by application of IFN‐α? Is the induction of depressive behaviour by IFN‐α in mice related to an inflammatory or anti‐inflammatory immunological response? Are substance P mediated events involved in the development of IFN‐α induced depressive behaviour? Are ICAM‐1/LFA‐1 mediated lymphocyte adhesion events involved in the development of depressive behaviour in mice? Does neutralisation of ICAM‐1/LFA interact with depressive symptoms or IFN‐α induced inflammation? Can cross effects between nervous (N. vagus) and immune mediators be observed upon or IFN‐α induced inflammation in mice? Is the central stress system involved in IFN‐α mediated depressive behaviour in mice?
