The body's immune system may have another new function to --- depression.

25, 2020 /--- In a new study, researchers from yale University School of Medicine and other research institutions compared immune system cells in the spinal fluid of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and healthy subjects and found that inflammatory autoimmune responses found in healthy people's spinal fluid were similar to autoimmune responses associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
findings suggest that these immune cells may also play a role in protecting our mental health, in addition to preventing microbial invasion.
study was published in the September 18, 2020 issue of the journal Science Immunology under the title "Transcriptomic and clonal Characterization of T cells in the human central nervous system."
T-cells, pictured from NIH. CC BY-NC 2.0.
these findings support an emerging theory that gamma-interferon may also play a role in preventing depression in healthy people as a protein that helps induce and regulate various immune system responses.
, co-author of the paper and a professor at Yale University School of Medicine, said, "We were surprised to find that normal spinal fluid is so noticeable.
previous studies have shown that blocking gamma-interferon and the T cells they help produce can cause depressive symptoms in mice.
is also a common side effect in patients with multiple sclerosis treated with different types of interferon, hafler said.
The researchers used a powerful new technique to examine individual cells in detail and found that while the characteristics of T cells in healthy human spinal fluid are similar to those of T cells in patients with multiple sclerosis, they lack the ability to proliferate and do not induce destructive inflammatory responses in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
, hafler says, the immune system in everyone's brain is ready to produce an inflammatory immune system response, and there may be another function besides defending against pathogens.
T-cells have another effect: we speculate that they may help maintain our mental health, " he said.
Hafler said his lab and colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine plan to explore how immune system responses in the central nervous system affect mental illnesses such as depression.
(bioon.com) Reference: 1.Jenna L. Pappalardo et al. Transcriptomic and clonal characterization of T cells in human central nervous system. Science Immunology, 2020, doi:10.1126/sciimmunol.abb8786.2.Immune system may have another job-combating depression.