文摘
Inflammation has been implicated as an important process in the pathogenesis of depression. The ability of antidepressants to suppress inflammation has been demonstrated in a variety of animal cell lines and human peripheral blood samples. Here we investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of antidepressants from different chemical classes in human hippocampal stem cells. Inflammation was induced by incubation with IL-1b for 24 h and inflammatory response was quantified by measurement of IL-6 secreted into the supernatant by means of ELISA. Three antidepressants from different chemical classes - moclobemide, agomelatine and venlafaxine all demonstrated a dose-dependent suppression of the inflammatory response to IL-1b upon co-incubation. Venlafaxine reduced IL-6 detected by 26 % (p < 0.01) at 1 ¦ÌM and 22 % (p < 0.05) at 10¦ÌM; agomelatine reduced IL-6 by 31 % (p < 0.05) at 1 ¦ÌM and 29 % (p < 0.05) at 10 ¦ÌM. Moclobemide showed a trend towards decreasing IL-6 by 20 % and 26 % at doses of 1 and 10 ¦ÌM, respectively. Preliminary data suggests that sertraline has no effect on the production of IL-6. Further preliminary data suggests that gene expression of IL-1 and IL-6 does not change with antidepressant co-incubation at 1, 12 or 24 h between suggesting antidepressants exert their effects through post-transcriptional means by, for example, decreasing mRNA stability or modulation of translation. Overall, our results add to the body of evidence suggesting that antidepressants have anti-inflammatory actions.