TY - JOUR AU - Sun, Yu AU - Narayan, Vaibhav A. AU - Wittenberg, Gayle M. PY - 2016 DA - 2016/10/21 TI - Side effect profile similarities shared between antidepressants and immune-modulators reveal potential novel targets for treating major depressive disorders JO - BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology SP - 47 VL - 17 IS - 1 AB - Side effects, or the adverse effects of drugs, contain important clinical phenotypic information that may be useful in predicting novel or unknown targets of a drug. It has been suggested that drugs with similar side-effect profiles may share common targets. The diagnostic class, Major Depressive Disorder, is increasingly viewed as being comprised of multiple depression subtypes with different biological root causes. One ‘type’ of depression generating substantial interest today focuses on patients with high levels of inflammatory burden, indicated by elevated levels of C-reactive proteins (CRP) and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6 (IL-6). It has been suggested that drugs targeting the immune system may have beneficial effect on this subtype of depressed patients, and several studies are underway to test this hypothesis directly. However, patients have been treated with both anti-inflammatory and antidepressant compounds for decades. It may be possible to exploit similarities in clinical readouts to better understand the antidepressant effects of immune-related drugs. SN - 2050-6511 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40360-016-0090-9 DO - 10.1186/s40360-016-0090-9 ID - Sun2016 ER -