Immune dysregulation in depression: Evidence from genome-wide association

Justin D Tubbs; Jiahong Ding; Larry Baum; Pak C Sham

doi:10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100108

Immune dysregulation in depression: Evidence from genome-wide association

Brain Behav Immun Health. 2020 Jul 17:7:100108. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100108. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Authors

Justin D Tubbs¹, Jiahong Ding¹, Larry Baum^{1

2}, Pak C Sham^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
² State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
³ Centre for PanorOmic Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Abstract

A strong body of evidence supports a role for immune dysregulation across many psychiatric disorders including depression, the leading cause of global disability. Recent progress in the search for genetic variants associated with depression provides the opportunity to strengthen our current understanding of etiological factors contributing to depression and generate novel hypotheses. Here, we provide an overview of the literature demonstrating a role for immune dysregulation in depression, followed by a detailed discussion of the immune-related genes identified by the most recent genome-wide meta-analysis of depression. These genes represent strong evidence-based targets for future basic and translational research which aims to understand the role of the immune system in depression pathology and identify novel points for therapeutic intervention.

Keywords: Depression; GWAS; Genetics; Mood disorders; Neuroscience; Psychiatry.