Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of immune status and psychosocial factors in survival from early breast cancer (N=61). Baseline assessments included lymphocyte number and function, natural killer cell activity (NKA), plasma cortisol and prolactin level. Psychosocial measures included anxiety, depression and mental adjustment to cancer and social support. Length of follow-up was 6.1-7.9 years with 14 (23%) breast cancer deaths. In Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for lymph node status two parameters predicted longer survival, low NKA (HR 29 per LLU, p=0.003) and minimizing the illness adjustment (HR 0.64 per scale point, p=0.012). These data provide little evidence for a psychoneuroimmunological mechanism in the survival from breast cancer. While this study is limited due to small sample size, and therefore the possibility of inflated estimates, longer survival in those minimizing the illness is a finding consistent with recent studies; however, the counter-intuitive finding that high NKA predicts shorter survival may be a marker for current disease or response to treatments.
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PMID:Immune function and adjustment style: do they predict survival in breast cancer? 1502 55

Loneliness is a psychological experience related to social isolation and perceived lack of companionship, and may be relevant to health risk. The revised UCLA loneliness scale was completed by 240 working men and women aged 47-59 years, and related to affective state and neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and inflammatory responses. Loneliness scores were not associated with gender, age or socioeconomic position, but were lower in married than single or divorced participants, and were positively related to social isolation, low emotional support, ratings of depression, hopelessness and low self-esteem, and to reported sleep problems. Diastolic blood pressure reactions to acute mental stress were positively correlated with loneliness in women but not men, independently of age, socioeconomic status, smoking, body mass and marital status (p = 0.014). Lonely individuals also displayed significantly greater fibrinogen (p = 0.038) and natural killer cell responses (p = 0.042) to stress, independently of covariates. The cortisol response over the first 30 min following waking was positively associated with loneliness after adjusting for waking cortisol value, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, time of waking, and body mass (p = 0.046). We conclude that loneliness is a psychological experience with potentially adverse effects on biological stress processes that may be relevant to health.
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PMID:Loneliness and neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and inflammatory stress responses in middle-aged men and women. 1504 Oct 83

In the present study we compared the effects of acute (30 min), white and illuminated open field (OF) stress on behavioral, immune and endocrine variables between rats divided into high (HR) and low (LR) responsive to novelty and in a non-divided group. It was found that OF-induced behavioral depression which was in parallel to suppression of both blood and spleen natural killer cell cytotoxicity (NKCC), large granular lymphocyte (LGL) and lymphocyte numbers occurred in stressed LR rats only. There was no significant difference in the plasma level of corticosterone (COR) and testosterone (TST) between HR and LR rats. In contrast, when the HR and LR groups were examined together (the non-divided group), no significant influence of OF stress on behavioral activity or NKCC was observed. These results emphasize that individual differences as measured by spontaneous locomotor activity play the important role for the study of the mechanisms involved in stress-induced immunomodulation and indicate that OF stress-induced behavioral depression in low reactivity animals may be accompanied by impaired defence against viral infections and neoplastic growth, which is functionally related to NKCC.
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PMID:Blood and spleen natural killer cell cytotoxicity after exposure to open field stress in rats: the effect of spontaneous locomotor activity. 1508 Dec 52

This study was conducted to examine lymphocyte subset counts and mood states in panic disorder patients. Twenty patients with panic disorder and 20 age- and gender-matched normal healthy subjects were recruited for the study. We used the Spielberger State (STAIS) & Trait (STAIT) Anxiety Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating scale (HAMD) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating scale (HAMA) to measure mood states in all subjects. Lymphocyte subsets counts were made by flow cytometry. Panic patients showed significantly higher scores for anxiety and depression than normal subjects. Panic patients showed no differences in terms of the numbers of immune cells, as compared with normal healthy subjects, other than a lower proportion of T suppressor cells and a higher T helper cell/T suppressor cell ratio. HAMA and STAIS scores were common factors that could predict T cell numbers and proportions, T helper cell numbers, and natural killer cell proportions in panic disorder patients. We suggest that anxiety levels are related to the T-cell population in panic disorder patients and that quantitative immune differences may reflect altered immunity in this disorder.
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PMID:Lymphocyte subsets and mood states in panic disorder patients. 1583 89

In our previous study we found that chronic electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus (LH) enhances and its lesion suppresses natural killer cell cytotoxicity (NKCC) and a large granular lymphocyte (LGL) number in conscious, freely behaving rats. Since the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) is regarded as behaviorally and physiologically opposite to LH, in our present study we investigated whether this antagonism also holds for the immune functions. Chronic electrical VMH stimulation effect on 1) immune parameters: both spleen and blood NKCC (chromium release assay and single-cell agarose assay) and the number of large granular lymphocytes (LGL; a morphological method), and 2) endocrine parameters: immunosuppressive-corticosterone (COR) and testosterone (TST) and immunostimulative-growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) plasma levels (RIA) was assessed. Twenty-one days of electrical stimulation of VMH caused significant decrease in both spleen and blood NKCC at the population level (chromium release assay) but not at the single cell level (agarose assay) with a simultaneous fall in the LGL number. Rats responding to the VMH stimulation with behavioral inactivation (BIN) showed a significantly lower depression of NKCC and LGL number than those responding with an aversive reaction (AVE). Depression of NKCC coexisted with various hormonal changes: increase of PRL, increase (AVE) or fall (BIN) of COR, decrease of GH (BIN), and increase of TST (VMH-stimulated and VMH-sham). There were significant differences in all measured plasma hormones between BIN and AVE groups. The results obtained indicate that VMH decreases cell-mediated immune response, represented by NK cell activity. The immunosuppressive effect is dependent on the behavioral outcome of VMH stimulation (BIN/AVE) rather than tested endocrine variables. Moreover, the present results indicate that the VMH and LH are antagonistically engaged in the regulation of NK cell cytotoxicity.
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PMID:Suppression of natural killer cell cytotoxicity following chronic electrical stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus in rats. 1588 7

Animal models of stress-induced depression have identified a bimodal reactivity to stress, namely 'resilience' and 'vulnerability.' Possible corresponding differences in endocrine and immunological responses between these groups have not been delineated. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: stress (n=25), confined controls (n=7), and home cage controls (n=7). Stress rats were exposed to 80, 5-s inescapable cold water swim trials (15 degrees C). Twenty-four hours later, the stress rats were tested on an instrumental swim escape test (SET) but now they had access to an omnidirectional lever that terminated the stress. Immediately after the SET, trunk blood was collected to assay for serum corticosterone (CORT), and spleens were removed and natural killer cell activity (NKCA) and concanavalin A (CON-A) induced lymphocyte proliferation determined. Subjects in the stress treatment group were divided into distinct 'resilient' and 'vulnerable' categories by a median split for average escape latencies across the last 25 trials of the SET. Stress rats secreted more CORT than controls and vulnerable rats secreted greater levels than resilient rats. NKCA was greatest in control rats, and was decreased in the stress rats although the resilient and the vulnerable groups did not differ. Conversely, CON-A-induced lymphocyte proliferation was greatest in stress rats, vulnerable rats exhibiting more proliferation than resilient rats, but both were greater than both control groups. Stress animals were hypothermic throughout the swim stress procedures but exhibited a stress-induced fever following the initial swim trials. The observed differences may have important predictive and theoretical utility for vulnerable and resilient profiles.
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PMID:Endocrine and immunological correlates of behaviorally identified swim stress resilient and vulnerable rats. 1630 84

The persistent activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary axes in chronic stress response and in depression impairs the immune response and contributes to the development and progression of some types of cancer. This overview presents results from experimental animal models, human studies, and clinical evidence that various cellular and molecular immunological parameters are compromised in chronic stress and depression. At the cellular level, stressed and depressed patients had overall leukocytosis, high concentrations of circulating neutrophils, reduced mitogen-stimulated lymphocyte proliferation and neutrophil phagocytosis. At the molecular level, high levels of serum basal cortisol, acute phase proteins, specific antibodies against herpes simplex virus type 1 and Epstein Barr virus, plasma concentration of interleukins IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha, and a shift in the balance of Th1 and Th2 immune response were observed. Both stress and depression were associated with the decreased cytotoxic T-cell and natural killer cell activities affecting the processes of the immune surveillance of tumours, and the events that modulate the development and the accumulation of somatic mutations and genomic instability. DNA damage, growth and angiogenic factors, proteases, matrix metalloproteinases, and reactive oxygen species were also related to the chronic stress response and depression. Behavioural strategies, psychological, and psychopharmacotherapeutic interventions that enhance effective coping and reduce affective distress showed beneficial effects in cancer patients. A better understanding of the bidirectional communication between the neuroendocrine and immune systems could contribute to novel clinical and treatment strategies in oncology.
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PMID:Stress and depression-induced immune dysfunction: implications for the development and progression of cancer. 1640 50

The ethanolic extracts from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L. (turmeric), possesses a wide variety of biological activities related to the treatment and prevention of affective disorders. To study their antidepressant effects, the impacts of chronic mild stress (CMS) and of the subsequent administration of ethanolic extracts of C. longa were investigated. Male Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to the CMS procedure demonstrated increased serum interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels, as well as a reduction of natural killer cell activity in splenocytes. In addition, CMS-treated rats exhibited elevated corticotropin-releasing factor in serum and medulla oblongata and cortisol levels in serum, with no significant change in serum adrenocorticotropin hormone levels. The preferential behavior of reduction in sucrose intake was also observed. These findings indicate that the alterations in immune and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis systems could participate in the behavioral response to the CMS procedure in animals. Administration of ethanolic extracts of C. longa largely reversed the above effects. These results demonstrate the antidepressant-like activity of ethanolic extracts of C. longa in the rat CMS model of depression, at least in part by improving the abnormalities in immune and the HPA axis functions.
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PMID:Ethanolic extracts from Curcuma longa attenuates behavioral, immune, and neuroendocrine alterations in a rat chronic mild stress model. 1665 23

The epidemic character of depressive disorders has prompted further research into dietary habits that could make an etiological contribution. One clear change in the diet of the population in developed countries has been the replacement of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids by saturated fats and trans-fats as well as by omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential fatty acids, and the members of the -3 and -6 series are crucial for human health. In biochemical processes there is a competition between these two series. A higher dietary intake of omega-6 results in the excessive incorporation of these molecules in the cell membrane with numerous pathological consequences, presumably due to the formation of proinflammatory eicosanoids. Members of the omega-3 family and their derivatives modulate the inflammatory action. Essential fatty acids play a major role in brain development and brain functioning. The omega-3 series members docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) provide fluidity to the cell membrane, facilitating certain processes including neurotransmission and ion channel flow. It is thought that omega-3 deficiency during the fetal and postnatal period may have a long-term effect at various levels. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated a positive association between omega-3 deficits and mood disorders. As for treatment, there is convincing evidence that add-on omega-3 fatty acids to standard antidepressant pharmacotherapy results in improved mood. There is no evidence that fatty acid monotherapy has a mood-elevating effect, with a possible exception for childhood depression. There are indications that omega-3 has a prophylactic effect on perinatal depression and has a negative effect on natural killer cell activity and T-lymphocyte function. These observations need further study in view of the popularity of self-medication.
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PMID:Fatty acid facts, Part I. Essential fatty acids as treatment for depression, or food for mood? 1903 51

The ability of T-lymphocytes to recognize antigens and transduce signals to the nucleus successfully is a key component in the initiation and maintenance of an immune response. The present study addressed the expression status of the signal-transducing proteins in relation to the immune impairment in cervical cancer patients. Immune response was measured by evaluating lymphocyte subpopulations CD3(+), CD4(+), and CD8(+), using flowcytometry, natural killer cell activity, using the single-cell cytotoxicity assay, lymphocyte function, using mitogenic response to PHA and T-cell activation following anti-CD3 stimulation, and production of IL-2. Expression of the T-cell signal transduction proteins, TCR-zeta, CD3-epsilon, zap-70, p(56)lck, PKC, NFkappabeta p50, Rel-A, Rel-B, and c-rel, was evaluated by using Western blot assay. A generalized depression of the immune response with respect to the different parameters evaluated was observed. Exogenous interleukin-2 (IL-2) could increase the response in all the controls and in 30% of the patients to different degrees varying from 10% to 90%. Low levels of the signaling molecules (TCR-zeta, CD3-epsilon, zap-70, p(56)lck, and PKC) and impairment in the transduction of NFkappabeta components (p50, Rel-A, Rel-B, and c-rel) to the nuclei were observed in these lymphocytes. Decreased CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio with an increase in suppressor cells, reduced lymphocyte proliferation, and production of IL-2 suggest a defective immune regulation in cervical cancer. Impairment in the translocation of NFkappabeta p50, Rel-A, and Rel-B to the nucleus and the reduced levels of signal-transducing proteins might be responsible for the decreased production of IL-2 and immune impairment in cervical cancer patients.
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PMID:Signaling defects and functional impairment in T-cells from cervical cancer patients. 2002 46


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