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Measuring Oxytocin Hormone and Oxytocin‐Reactive Autoantibodies to Determine Their Correlation with the Severity of Clinical Depression
Author(s) -
Thompson Sarah Elizabeth,
Russo A. J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.767.7
Subject(s) - oxytocin , depression (economics) , hormone , autoantibody , medicine , psychology , endocrinology , physiology , antibody , immunology , economics , macroeconomics
Autoantibodies are immunoglobulins that are unable to distinguish foreign antigens from the body's own proteins. While the mechanisms behind the generation and persistence of these self‐recognizing antibodies are not clear, hormones, such as oxytocin, may be involved in their production. Oxytocin is important in both reproduction and childbirth. However, it is also a key chemical messenger affecting social behavior, with lower levels of the hormone potentially resulting in depressive disorders.1,2 Clinical depression is a serious mental illness that affects 350 million people worldwide and almost 7% of adults in the United States.3 To date, the main methods used to diagnose depression are the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Montgomery‐Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, two subjective, survey‐style observational tests. Because each individual case of depression is unique, simply observing depressive behaviors may not be sufficient to develop effective treatment plans for patients. Certain biochemical measurements, such as blood plasma levels of oxytocin hormone and autoantibodies to oxytocin in the circulation, may correlate to the severity of depression. In this study, direct and sandwich enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) will be used to measure the concentrations of these biomarkers in the blood plasma of patients diagnosed with clinical depression. The quantified levels of oxytocin hormone and oxytocin‐reactive autoantibodies will then be compared to depression rating scale results in order to determine if a correlation between the concentration of these biomarkers and the severity of depression exists. Using oxytocin hormone and oxytocin‐reactive autoantibody levels to “quantify” illness severity may contribute to more effective diagnoses and treatment plans for clinically depressed individuals. Support or Funding Information This project is funded, in part, by the Dean M. Graham Foundation.