1School of Medicine,Centre for Molecular and Medical Research,Deakin University,Geelong,Australia.
4Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry,Hospital de clínicas de Porto Alegre,Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,Porto Alegre,Brazil.
Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2017 Dec;29(6):337-346. doi: 10.1017/neu.2017.2. Epub 2017 Mar 20.
This study aimed to explore effects of adjunctive N-acetylcysteine (NAC) treatment on inflammatory and neurogenesis markers in unipolar depression.
We embarked on a 12-week clinical trial of NAC (2000 mg/day compared with placebo) as an adjunctive treatment for unipolar depression. A follow-up visit was conducted 4 weeks following the completion of treatment. We collected serum samples at baseline and the end of the treatment phase (week 12) to determine changes in interleukin-6 (IL6), C-reactive protein (CRP) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) following NAC treatment.
NAC treatment significantly improved depressive symptoms on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) over 16 weeks of the trial. Serum levels of IL6 were associated with reductions of MADRS scores independent of treatment response. However, we found no significant changes in IL6, CRP and BDNF levels following NAC treatment.
Overall, this suggests that our results failed to support the hypothesis that IL6, CRP and BDNF are directly involved in the therapeutic mechanism of NAC in depression. IL6 may be a useful marker for future exploration of treatment response.
本研究旨在探讨辅助使用 N-乙酰半胱氨酸 (NAC) 对单相抑郁炎症和神经发生标志物的影响。
我们开展了一项为期 12 周的 NAC（2000mg/天，与安慰剂相比）作为单相抑郁辅助治疗的临床试验。治疗结束后进行了随访。我们在基线和治疗阶段结束时（第 12 周）采集血清样本，以确定 NAC 治疗后白细胞介素 6 (IL6)、C 反应蛋白 (CRP) 和脑源性神经营养因子 (BDNF) 的变化。
NAC 治疗在试验的 16 周内显著改善了蒙哥马利-艾斯伯格抑郁评定量表 (MADRS)上的抑郁症状。血清 IL6 水平与 MADRS 评分的降低独立于治疗反应相关。然而，我们发现 NAC 治疗后 IL6、CRP 和 BDNF 水平没有显著变化。
总体而言，这表明我们的结果未能支持 IL6、CRP 和 BDNF 直接参与 NAC 在抑郁症治疗机制的假设。IL6 可能是未来探索治疗反应的有用标志物。
