Background
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability throughout the world with a global prevalence of 2.6–5.9% [
1]. The total estimated number of people living with depression worldwide increased by 49.86% from 1990 to 2017 [
2]. According to worldwide projections, MDD will be the single major cause of burden of all health conditions by 2030 [
3]. MDD is characterized by periods of low mood, altered cognition, considerable functional burden including impaired occupational functioning and psychosocial disability [
4]. Despite available pharmacotherapeutic options, 30–60% of patients with MDD are not responsive to available treatments [
5] and the rate of remission of the disease is often < 50% [
6], while recurrence rates are more than 85% within 10 years of a depressive episode, and average about ≥ 50% within 6 months of assumed clinical remission [
4]. Indeed, there exists no compelling evidence that current treatments are capable of disease modification in MDD patients. Thus, therapeutic deficiency in treatment outcomes reflects the demand for revitalizing psychiatric therapeutics with novel pharmacotherapeutic options that engage non-monoaminergic molecular targets.
A large body of evidence suggests that inflammation has central role in pathogenesis of MDD [
7‐
13]. However, the exact mechanisms underlying inflammation-induced depression are not completely elucidated [
3]. Historically, the “monoamine-depletion hypothesis” has been the main proposed pathophysiology [
14]; nevertheless, this hypothesis alone cannot fully account for pathogenesis of MDD [
15,
16]. In recent years, “inflammatory hypothesis” has been proposed [
17]. However, it is noteworthy that it was probably in the early 1990s that for the first time, possible relationships between the peripheral immune system and major depression was studied [
18]. Maes et al. (1992) established immune cell profile of patients with depression and advocated for the existence of a systemic immune activation during major depressive disorder [
19]. Moreover, correlations between IL-6 activity, acute phase proteins, and hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis were suggested in severe depression [
20].
Most proximally, inflammation is regulated by expression of immune response genes including interleukin (IL)-1B, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and IL-6 which promote secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines leading to systemic inflammation. Distally, inflammation is regulated in the brain where socio-environmental cues including possible threat are detected. This neuro-inflammatory link can activate the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) before happening of a possible threat or bacterial infection. However, the negative aspect of central regulation of systemic inflammation is that it can give social and foreseen dangers (including those that have not yet occurred or may never actually happen) the ability to activate the CTRA in the absence of actual physical danger. Under normal conditions, CTRA-related inflammatory activity is downregulated by the HPA axis via the production of cortisol. Nevertheless, when prolonged actual or perceived social threat or physical danger is present, glucocorticoid resistance can develop which leads to excessive inflammation that heightens a person’s risk for development of several disorders including MDD, especially if activation of these pathways is prolonged [
21]. As mentioned above, the current understanding of MDD encloses not only alterations in neurotransmitters, but also changes in immune and endocrine functioning as well as neural circuits [
22]. This broadened framework has just started to inform a wide array of novel, personalized therapeutics that are showcasing great promise in a new holistic approach to MDD [
23].
Cytokines are implicated in pathogenesis of MDD [
24‐
30]. Risk factors of developing MDD include familial, developmental, psychological, and medical risk factors as well as molecular factors associated with genetics, epigenetics, gene expression, and also those related to the endocrine and the immune system [
31,
32]. All these risk factors have been shown to be related with changes in cytokine production or signaling. In other words, cytokines are involved in almost every predisposing or precipitating risk factor associated with MDD [
24]. Indeed, there is accumulating evidence in favor of involvement of pro-inflammatory cytokines in pathophysiology of depression [
24,
29,
33‐
36]. Various studies reported higher levels of multiple inflammatory markers including IL-6 in patients with MDD [
37‐
41]. Of all pro-inflammatory cytokines, changes in IL-6 serum levels have been reported as one of the most reproducible abnormalities in MDD [
38].
The aim of the present narrative review is to elucidate the fundamentals, implications, challenges of cytokine research specifically IL-6 in major depressive disorder. This comprises of the following:
-) A Brief overview of cytokines
-) Cytokine categories according to immunological function.
-) IL-6 as a pleiotropic cytokine.
-) Brief overview of chemokines and their role in Depression.
-) Challenges of cytokine research in psychiatry.
-) IL-6 alterations in depression.
-) Effects of IL-6 on neurotransmitters’ synthesis, signaling, metabolism, and function.
-) Effects of IL-6 levels on brain morphology in depression.
-) Blockade of IL-6 and its receptor in the periphery as a potential therapeutic option in MDD.
-) Possible role of IL-6 together with gut microbiota in pathogenesis of depression.
-) Elevated levels of IL-6 in patients with COVID-19 infection.
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