Major Depressive Disorder and Pulmonary Tuberculosis Comorbidity Exacerbates Proinflammatory Immune Response-A Preliminary Study

• Published in: Pathogens (Basel) 2023-02, Vol.12 (3), p.361
• Main Authors: Alvarez-Sekely, Magaly, Lopez-Bago, Ana, Báez-Saldaña, Renata, Pezoa-Jares, Rodolfo E, Gorocica, Patricia, Zenteno, Edgar, Lascurain, Ricardo, Saldívar-González, Alfredo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Biological markers; Blood; Care and treatment; Cell culture; Chemokines; Comorbidity; Cytokines; depressive disorder; Diagnosis; Flow cytometry; Immune response; Inflammation; Interleukin 10; Interleukin 12; Interleukin 13; Interleukin 4; Laboratories; Leukocytes (mononuclear); Major depressive disorder; Mental depression; Mental disorders; patients; Peripheral blood mononuclear cells; pro-inflammatory; Pulmonary tuberculosis; Quality of life; Sodium; Software; Statistical analysis; Tuberculosis; Tumor necrosis factor; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; γ-Interferon
• ISSN: 2076-0817; 2076-0817
• DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12030361

Major depressive disorders (MDDs) occurs frequently in patients with tuberculosis (TB). Elevated serum pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in MDD patients is a well-established fact. Therefore, an integrated clinical practice should be considered. However, the inflammatory status of MDD-TB patients is unknown. In this study, we analyze cytokines in activated-cells and sera from MDD-TB, TB, MDD patients, and healthy controls. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate the intracellular production of interferon (IFN)-gamma, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-12, and IL-10 by peripheral blood mononuclear cells after a polyclonal stimulation. A Bio-Plex Luminex system was used to measure serum cytokine and chemokine levels in the study groups. We observed a 40.6% prevalence of MDD in TB patients. The proportion of IFN-gamma-producing cells was higher in MDD-TB patients than other pathological groups. Nevertheless, the percentage of TNF-alpha- and IL-12-producing cells was similar between MDD-TB and TB patients. Likewise, MDD-TB and TB patients showed similar serum pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine levels, which were significantly lower than those in MDD patients. By multiple correspondence analyses, we observed that low levels of serum IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13 were powerfully associated with TB comorbidities with MDD. A high frequency of IFN-γ-producing cells is associated with low levels of serum anti-inflammatory cytokines in MDD-TB patients.