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Abstract
Approximately 3% of the world population suffers from depression, which is one of the most common form of mental disorder. Recent findings suggest that an interaction between the nervous system and immune system might be behind the pathophysiology of various neurological and psychiatric disorders, including depression. Neuropeptides have been shown to play a major role in mediating response to stress and inducing immune activation or suppression. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) is a major regulator of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis response. CRF is a stress-related neuropeptide whose dysregulation has been associated with depression. In this review, we summarized the role of CRF in the neuroimmune mechanisms of depression, and the potential therapeutic effects of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) as well as other agents. Studying the network of CRF and immune responses will help to enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of depression. Additionally, targeting this important network may aid in developing novel treatments for this debilitating psychiatric disorder.
Highlights
Depression, termed as clinical depression or major depressive disorder (MDD), is a common but serious mental disorder affecting the quality of human life
Decreased serum and urinary cortisol levels were observed in other older patient samples (Morrison et al, 2000; Oldehinkel et al, 2001). These findings suggested that both hyper as well as hypoactivity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis are implicated in late-life depression (Ancelin et al, 2017)
As IL-10 can stimulate the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), this preventive effect may be partly due to the ACTH mediated short feedback loop inhibition of Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) (Smith et al, 1999). Another clinical study showed that CRF treatment suppresses IL-10 production in both Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and healthy controls, and this process was regulated by T cells (Oh et al, 2012)
Summary
Depression, termed as clinical depression or major depressive disorder (MDD), is a common but serious mental disorder affecting the quality of human life. CRF is a key regulator of the hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is the most important neuroendocrine system mediating the stress response. CRF acts through CRF1 and CRF2 receptors to regulate the depressive-like behaviors, and these receptors play different roles in stress-induced HPA response.
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