Inflammation and kynurenine pathway dysregulation in post-partum women with severe and suicidal depression.

Inflammation and kynurenine pathway dysregulation in post-partum women with severe and suicidal depression. Brain Behav Immun. 2019 Nov 04;: Authors: Achtyes E, Keaton SA, Smart L, Burmeister AR, Heilman PL, Krzyzanowski S, Nagalla M, Guillemin GJ, Escobar Galvis ML, Lim CK, Muzik M, Postolache T, Leach R, Brundin L Abstract Depression during pregnancy and the post-partum is common, with severe cases resulting in suicidal behavior. Despite the urgent and unmet medical need, the biological underpinnings of peri-partum depression remain unclear. It has been suggested that it is triggered by dynamic changes of the immune system during pregnancy and at delivery. Therefore, we investigated whether a pro-inflammatory status in plasma, together with changes in the kynurenine pathway activity, is associated with the development of severe depression and suicidal behavior in the post-partum. Our cross-sectional study targets a unique, understudied population in which the pronounced severity of symptoms required hospitalization. We analyzed plasma IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, tryptophan, serotonin, kynurenine, nicotinamide, quinolinic- and kynurenic acids in post-partum women diagnosed with peripartum onset depression (PPD) and healthy controls (n=165). We assessed depression severity using the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale and suicidality using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale. We found that increased plasma IL-6 and IL-8...
Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Brain Behav Immun Source Type: research