Depression has been characterized as a disorder of both immune suppression and immune activation. Markers of impaired cellular immunity (decreased natural killer cell cytotoxicity) and inflammation (elevated IL-6, TNFα, CRP) have been associated with depression. These immunological markers have been associated with other medical illnesses, suggesting that immune dysregulation may be a central feature common to both depression and to its frequent medical comorbidities. Yet the significant associations of findings of both immune suppression and immune activation with depression raise questions concerning the relationship between these two classes of immunological observations. Depressed populations are heterogeneous groups, and there may be differences in the immune profiles of populations that are more narrowly defined in terms of symptom profile and/or demographic features. There have been few reports concurrently investigating markers of immune suppression and immune activation in the same depressed individuals. An emerging preclinical literature suggests that chronic inflammation may directly contribute to the pathophysiology of immune suppression in the context of illnesses such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. This literature provides us with specific immunoregulatory mechanisms mediating these relationships that could also explain differences in immune disturbances between subsets of depressed individuals We propose a research agenda emphasizing the assessment of these immunoregulatory mechanisms in large samples of depressed subjects as a means to define the relationships among immune findings (suppression and/or activation) within the same depressed individuals and to characterize subsets of depressed subjects based on shared immune profiles. Such a program of research, building on and integrating our knowledge of the psychoneuroimmunology of depression, could lead to innovation in the assessment and treatment of depression and its medical comorbidities.

Objective-To test the hypothesis that the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram would down regulate HIV infectivity and that the greatest effects would be seen in people with depression. Depression is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality in HIV/AIDS. Serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission has been implicated in the pathobiology of depression, and pharmacologic therapies for depression target this system. The 5-HT transporter and 5-HT receptors are widely distributed throughout the central nervous and immune systems. Depression has been associated with suppression of natural killer cells (NK) cells and CD8+ lymphocytes, key regulators of HIV infection.Methods-Ex-vivo models for acute and chronic HIV infection were used to study the effects of citalopram on HIV viral infection and replication, in 48 depressed and non-depressed women. For both the acute and chronic infection models, HIV reverse transcriptase (RT) activity was measured in the citalopram treatment condition and the control condition.Results-The SSRI significantly downregulated the RT response in both the acute and chronic infection models. Specifically, citalopram significantly decreased the acute HIV infectivity of macrophages. Citalopram also significantly decreased HIV viral replication in the latently infected T-cell line and in the latently infected macrophage cell line. There was no difference in downregulation by depression status.Please direct all correspondence to: Dwight L. Evans, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 305 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104, Phone: 215-662-2818, Fax: 215-662-6911, dlevans@mail.med.upenn.edu. In recent previous years, he has received compensation as a consultant/advisory board member of Abbott, Astra Zeneca, BMS, Forest, Lilly, Neuronetics, PamLab, and Wyeth. Conflict of Interest StatementTami Benton, David R. Gettes, Nancy Tustin, Jian Ping Lai, declare no conflict of interest. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Conclusions-These studies suggest that an SSRI enhances NK/CD8 non-cytolytic HIV suppression in HIV/AIDS and decreases HIV viral infectivity of macrophages, ex vivo, suggesting the need for in vivo studies to determine a potential role for agents targeting serotonin in the host defense against HIV. NIH Public Access