Open AccessIs there a place for cellular therapy in depression?
Author(s) -
Pedro Antônio Schmidt do Prado-Lima,
Zaquer Suzana Munhoz Costa-Ferro,
Bruno Solano de Freitas Souza,
Ivana Beatrice Mânica da Cruz,
Biogenomics Lab
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
world journal of psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2220-3206
DOI - 10.5498/wjp.v11.i9.553
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , medicine , bioinformatics , pharmacology , biology , economics , macroeconomics
Although efforts have been made to improve the pharmacological treatment of depression, approximately one-third of patients with depression do not respond to conventional therapy using antidepressants. Other potential non-pharmacological therapies have been studied in the last years, including the use of mesenchymal stem cell therapies to treat depression. These therapies are reviewed here since it is clinically relevant to develop innovative therapeutics to treat psychiatric patients. Experimental data corroborate that mesenchymal stem cell therapy could be considered a potential treatment for depression based on its anti-inflammatory and neurotrophic properties. However, some clinical trials involving treatment of depression with stem cells are in progress, but with no published results. These studies and other future clinical investigations will be crucial to define how much mesenchymal stem cells can effectively be used in psychiatric clinics as a strategy for supporting depression treatment.