How brain immune cells can alter the structure and function of the brain in depression.

What is it about?

Microglia are the innate immune cells of the brain. In depression, the brain's immune system can become innapropriately active and start to affect the structure and function of brain cells which can cause or worsen symptoms of depression.

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Why is it important?

Depression is a complex condition which has a combination of biological and social triggers. Primarily depression has been thought of as a disease of how brain cells function and treatments offered have often focused on correcting that functional issue. This helps some patients with depression, but many continue to suffer from depression even on optimal medical therapy and does not address the underlying cause of the brain's dysfunction. This paper is trying to explore the possible relationship between a misfunctioning immune system causing damage to the brain which could be an underlying driver for depression and could help to develop new therapies for depression, by addressing this underlying cause.