Systemic immune responses in endogenous depressions

Abstract

The aim of the study is a comparison of clinical and immunological parameters in patients with endogenous depressive disorders for their possible use in assessing the degree of pathological process activity.

Material and methods. The study involved 49 patients aged 18–55 years with depressive state (F31, F32, F33, F34, ICD-10). The depression was assessed with the Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS-21). The activity of leukocyte elastase (LE), α1-proteinase inhibitor (α1-PI), and the level of autoantibodies (AAB) to neuroantigens S100B and MBP were measured in the serum of patients.

Results. The clinical state of patients in 72% of cases corresponded to moderate and in 28% of cases to severe depression severity. Following treatment there was observed a considerable improvement in the clinical state of patients and a reduction in mean total HDRS-21 score (p<0.001). Prior to treatment a significant increase was observed in blood serum of LE and α1-PI activity as well as in the level of AAB to S100B as compared with the control group (р<0.001; р<0.001; р=0.02). There was a significant decrease in LE activity after treatment (р=0.04) whilst the activity of α1-PI and the level of AAB remained practically unchanged. Correlation analysis has revealed a significant relationship between severity of depression diagnosed in patients prior to treatment and the complex assessment of the immune parameters (r=0.34; p=0.017) and the lack of significant correlations after treatment.

Conclusion. The revealed significant clinic-immunological correlations before the initiation of pharmacotherapy suggest that the investigated immunological parameters can be used as additional diagnostic criterion in assessing the activity of pathological process in the brain. In some cases reduction of clinical manifestations of endogenous depression after pharmacotherapy may not coincide with the stages of reverse development of a pathological process.