Anjum Sadia, Qusar M M A Shalahuddin, Shahriar Mohammad, Islam Sardar Mohammad Ashraful, Bhuiyan Mohiuddin Ahmed, Islam Md Rabiul
Department of Pharmacy, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Department of Psychiatry, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2020 Apr 28;10:2045125320916655. doi: 10.1177/2045125320916655. eCollection 2020.
Abnormal expression of inflammatory cytokines in major depressive disorder (MDD) suggests the activation of an inflammatory process. The pattern of alterations in cytokine levels is still ambiguous. The present study aimed to evaluate interleukin-7 (IL-7) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) for their involvement in the pathophysiology of MDD and determine their relationships with depression risk.
The study included 166 medication-free subjects: 84 MDD patients and 82 sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs). A qualified psychiatrist diagnosed patients and evaluated controls based on the , 5th edition (DSM-5). Hamilton depression rating scale (Ham-D) was used to measure the severity of depression in MDD patients. Serum IL-7 and IL-10 levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits.
Compared with HCs, the serum levels of IL-7 were significantly decreased, whereas that of IL-10 increased in MDD patients. Moreover, the severity of depression is correlated with the altered levels of IL-7 and IL-10 in MDD patients. We found a negative correlation between IL-7 and Hamilton depression rating (Ham-D) scores ( = -0.580, < 0.05), whereas there was a positive correlation between IL-10 and Ham-D scores (= 0.555, < 0.05).
The altered levels of serum IL-7 and IL-10 in MDD patients may represent a homeostatic mechanism that enhances the inflammatory process during depression. The alterations of these cytokine levels in MDD and their association with the severity of depression support them as promising, but there may still be controversial factors for understanding the pathophysiology of depression.
炎症细胞因子在重度抑郁症（MDD）中的异常表达提示炎症过程被激活。细胞因子水平的变化模式仍不明确。本研究旨在评估白细胞介素-7（IL-7）和白细胞介素-10（IL-10）在MDD病理生理学中的作用，并确定它们与抑郁风险的关系。
该研究纳入了166名未服用药物的受试者：84名MDD患者和82名性别及年龄匹配的健康对照（HCs）。一名合格的精神科医生根据《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第5版（DSM-5）对患者进行诊断并对对照进行评估。汉密尔顿抑郁量表（Ham-D）用于测量MDD患者的抑郁严重程度。使用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）试剂盒测量血清IL-7和IL-10水平。
与HCs相比，MDD患者血清IL-7水平显著降低，而IL-10水平升高。此外，MDD患者的抑郁严重程度与IL-7和IL-10水平的改变相关。我们发现IL-7与汉密尔顿抑郁量表（Ham-D）评分之间呈负相关（r = -0.580，P < 0.05），而IL-10与Ham-D评分之间呈正相关（r = 0.555，P < 0.05）。
MDD患者血清IL-7和IL-10水平的改变可能代表一种稳态机制，在抑郁期间增强炎症过程。这些细胞因子水平在MDD中的改变及其与抑郁严重程度的关联表明它们具有潜力，但在理解抑郁症的病理生理学方面可能仍存在有争议的因素。
