Depression to the immune cells are deformed! From Sub Journal of nature

The following is the Depression to the immune cells are deformed! From Sub Journal of nature recommended by recordtrend.com. And this article belongs to the classification: Life data.

Depression is characterized by depression, decreased interest, slow thinking, poor diet and sleep. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization (who), more than 350million people in the world are troubled by depression, which has become the fourth largest disease in the world, and the number of patients is still growing rapidly [1]. Depression is also associated with an increase in the incidence rate of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

More notably, more than 700000 people commit suicide each year because of depression. However, the current social awareness of depression is far from enough. Many people equate depression with negative emotions caused by frustration in life, without realizing that it is a serious disease. In addition, there are many patients with depression because they can not get the correct diagnosis and delay the condition.

Recently, researchers from Andreas Walther research group of Dresden University of technology published important research results in the journal translational psychology [2]. Patients with depression, especially those with persistent depressive disorder (PDD), have stronger deformability of peripheral blood cells than healthy people. Among them, lymphocytes, monocytes and neutrophils are the immune cells most affected by depression.

The study found for the first time that the deformability of immune cells in patients with depression was increased. This change in the mechanical characteristics of immune cells suggests that depression is related to the persistent immune response of the body. Precise regulation of the deformability of immune cells in patients with depression may be a new idea for the treatment of depression in the future.

The pathophysiological mechanism of depression has not been elucidated until now. The hyperactivation of hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis (HPA) and chronic low-grade inflammation are the two most recognized pathophysiological features related to depression [3]. Many studies have found that the levels of cortisol and proinflammatory factors are increased in patients with depression, suggesting that depression is related to the activation of the immune system. Recent studies have also confirmed that in the peripheral blood of patients with depression, many types of immune cells are significantly increased [4].

The activation of immune system is not only reflected in the number of cells, but also reflected in the abnormal function of immune cells. However, there is no direct evidence that patients with depression have abnormal immune cell function.

In the cell, there is an extremely complex protein fiber network structure – cytoskeleton. Cytoskeleton endows cells with the ability of active deformation and resistance to passive deformation, namely cell deformability. Cell deformability is closely related to cell function and can be used as a good indicator of cell function.

Andreas Walther’s team recruited 220 participants (18-68 years old) from the Dresden burnout study (DBS) cohort. The patients were divided into groups according to the preliminary assessment of depression risk through the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9). Subsequently, the researchers further improved the dia-x-5 Composite International Diagnostic Interview for participants to assess the types of depression.

Finally, the researchers pricked 20 from the participants’ fingertips μ L of blood samples, the real-time cell deformability counter (rt-dc) (see Figure 1) is used to detect the deformability of blood cells, and the cell size and deformation rate of each cell type are obtained.

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of real-time cell deformability counter and subsequent blood cell sorting method based on artificial intelligence.

After excluding the participants who did not cooperate or were complicated with mania, 69 cases were enrolled in the case group (PHQ-9 score >10); The control group (age and sex matched PHQ-9 score < 5) had 70 cases in total. After further evaluation of the types of depressive disorders, the final inclusion results were: 30 cases of lifelong persistent depressive disorder (ltpdd), 15 cases of 1-year persistent depressive disorder (12 month PDD), 15 cases of lifelong depression (ltmdd), 12 cases of 1-year depression (12 month MDD) and 62 cases of healthy control group.

The results of the cell counter showed that the deformability of monocytes, granular monocytes and neutrophils in the lifelong persistent depression group was significantly increased compared with the control group (see Figure 2); In the 1-year persistent depressive disorder group, erythrocyte deformability increased, while lymphocyte and granule monocyte deformability did not change; In the 1-year depression group, the deformability of lymphocytes increased; In the lifelong depression group, there was no significant change in the deformability of blood cells.

Figure II Box plot of blood cell deformability in lifelong persistent depressive disorder and healthy control group

In order to confirm the correlation between the severity of depression and the increase of blood cell deformability, the researchers conducted a partial correlation analysis between each depression group and the control group, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index and psychotropic drug factors (see Figure 3).

The results showed that PHQ-9 score was related to the increased deformability of monocytes, neutrophils, and granulosa monocytes in the lifelong persistent depressive disorder group. In addition, PHQ-9 scores were independently associated with increased monocyte and erythrocyte deformability in 1-year persistent depression and 1-year persistent depression, respectively.

Figure III Correlation between PHQ-9 score and blood cell deformability in each group

So far, we can confirm that depression is related to the increase of deformability of peripheral blood immune cells. It is worth thinking about is why the immune cells of patients with depression will appear in this situation? The researchers speculate that this may be related to the over activation of HPA axis and chronic low-grade inflammation. Cortisol produced by HPA axis activation and proinflammatory factors produced by inflammatory reaction can both affect actin cytoskeleton reorganization and increase cell deformability [6].

In addition, the increase of cortisol and proinflammatory factors will also affect lipid formation. Lipid is an important component of cell membrane, and lipid formation is disturbed, which means that the stability of cell membrane may be decreased, thus showing an increase in cell deformability [7].

This study was the first to evaluate the association between depression and the cellular deformability of major types of blood cells, and to clarify the impact of depression on the mechanical characteristics of primary immune cells. Researchers used high-throughput real-time cell deformability counter combined with artificial intelligence image processing technology to provide the highest level of validity and reliability for clinical evaluation of depression.

Of course, the limitations of the study are also obvious. The participants were not newly diagnosed patients who had not taken antidepressants, and the potential impact of drugs on cell deformability should not be underestimated. In addition, the proportion of men in the group was low, and there was gender bias.

The changes of cellular mechanical characteristics are closely related to pathological process and physiological function. The increase of immune cell deformability in patients with depression provides new insights into the pathophysiological mechanism of depression. Precise regulation of immune cell mechanics may become a new idea for the treatment of depression in the future.

From: singularity network

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