Nina Steen Vindegaard Sørensen

Christina Kruuse lab

Title: Neuroimmunological investigations of individuals with depression

Abstract: Depression is a frequent mental disorder estimated to affect more than 260 million people worldwide and is a leading cause of disability. The aim of this project was to evaluate neuroimmunological contrasts in CSF from patients with recent-onset depression compared to individually matched (sex and age) healthy controls in three studies evaluating total CSF white cell count (WCC), CSF/serum albumin ratio, CSF total protein and immunoglobulin (Ig) G index (Study 1), levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 (study 2) and six antineuronal autoantibodies (study 3). The project included 106 patients with recent-onset depression and 106 individually matched (sex and age) healthy controls. The patients suffered from moderate depression with an average HDRS-17 score of 20.6 (6.3) and the mean time from the depression diagnosis to enrolment was 4.0 weeks. The patients with depression had 18% higher total CSF WCC relative to controls. Furthermore, patients with severe depression (N = 29) had 43% higher total CSF WCC relative controls. One patient had total CSF WCC markedly above normal clinical range (total CSF WCC of 100x10⁶/L). There were no significant group differences regarding CSF/serum albumin ratio, CSF total protein and IgG index, IL-6 and IL-8 levels between groups, and the seroprevalences of any antineuronal Ab were 0.9% in both groups. The studies provide some evidence of a neuroinflammatory response in patients with recent-onset depression, however, also has methodological limitations.