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Immune-endocrine biomarkers associated with mental health: a 9-year longitudinal investigation from the Hertfordshire Ageing Study

Immune-endocrine biomarkers associated with mental health: a 9-year longitudinal investigation from the Hertfordshire Ageing Study
Immune-endocrine biomarkers associated with mental health: a 9-year longitudinal investigation from the Hertfordshire Ageing Study
Background: The study of neural-endocrine-immune system interactions has led to substantial advances in our understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders. Growing evidence reveals the pivotal roles of inflammatory cytokines signalling the brain to produce neurochemical, neuroendocrine, and neuroimmune changes which affect mood and behaviour. Ageing is accompanied by the development of low-grade systemic inflammation which may promote changes in the neural systems predisposing to geriatric depression via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal associations between baseline values and conditional changes (independent of baseline) in immune-endocrine biomarkers and mental health status in a population-based cohort of older adults. Methods: Data from 347 subjects (200 men, 147 women) who participated in the Hertfordshire Ageing Study at baseline (1994/5, mean age 67.3 years) and at 9-year follow-up were analysed. Serum samples for analysis of inflammatory and endocrinological measures were collected at baseline and follow-up. At follow-up, depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and mental health (Short Form-36 questionnaire) were assessed. Baseline values and changes in biomarkers in relation to risk of high depression scores (top sex-specific third) and low mental health scores (bottom sex-specific third) were examined using logistic regression. Results: Lower baseline cortisol was related to greater risk of high depression scores; higher baseline cortisol: Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulphate ratio (men only) and higher baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) (women only) were related to greater risk of poor mental health scores. In addition, greater decline in cortisol was related to increased risk of high depression scores among men. These relationships were robust (p<0.05) after controlling for sex, age, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption and number of systems medicated. Conclusion: This study provides further evidence of the role of the HPA and inflammation in older adults with poor mental health. In addition, the findings highlight sex differences where increased inflammation in women and declines in cortisol in men was linked to poorer mental health. Further research is warranted to confirm these findings. This could lead to the search for potential biomarkers to stratify medications as well as developing novel intervention targets to improve mental health at older age.
0889-1591
Hou, Ruihua
470bdcbc-93a9-4dad-aac5-26d455c34376
Westbury, Leo
5ed45df3-3df7-4bf9-bbad-07b63cd4b281
Fuggle, Nicholas
9ab0c81a-ac67-41c4-8860-23e0fdb1a900
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Dennison, Elaine
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1
Hou, Ruihua
470bdcbc-93a9-4dad-aac5-26d455c34376
Westbury, Leo
5ed45df3-3df7-4bf9-bbad-07b63cd4b281
Fuggle, Nicholas
9ab0c81a-ac67-41c4-8860-23e0fdb1a900
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Dennison, Elaine
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1

Hou, Ruihua, Westbury, Leo, Fuggle, Nicholas, Cooper, Cyrus and Dennison, Elaine (2021) Immune-endocrine biomarkers associated with mental health: a 9-year longitudinal investigation from the Hertfordshire Ageing Study. Brain, Behavior and Immunity. (doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2021.12.022).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: The study of neural-endocrine-immune system interactions has led to substantial advances in our understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders. Growing evidence reveals the pivotal roles of inflammatory cytokines signalling the brain to produce neurochemical, neuroendocrine, and neuroimmune changes which affect mood and behaviour. Ageing is accompanied by the development of low-grade systemic inflammation which may promote changes in the neural systems predisposing to geriatric depression via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal associations between baseline values and conditional changes (independent of baseline) in immune-endocrine biomarkers and mental health status in a population-based cohort of older adults. Methods: Data from 347 subjects (200 men, 147 women) who participated in the Hertfordshire Ageing Study at baseline (1994/5, mean age 67.3 years) and at 9-year follow-up were analysed. Serum samples for analysis of inflammatory and endocrinological measures were collected at baseline and follow-up. At follow-up, depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and mental health (Short Form-36 questionnaire) were assessed. Baseline values and changes in biomarkers in relation to risk of high depression scores (top sex-specific third) and low mental health scores (bottom sex-specific third) were examined using logistic regression. Results: Lower baseline cortisol was related to greater risk of high depression scores; higher baseline cortisol: Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulphate ratio (men only) and higher baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) (women only) were related to greater risk of poor mental health scores. In addition, greater decline in cortisol was related to increased risk of high depression scores among men. These relationships were robust (p<0.05) after controlling for sex, age, BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption and number of systems medicated. Conclusion: This study provides further evidence of the role of the HPA and inflammation in older adults with poor mental health. In addition, the findings highlight sex differences where increased inflammation in women and declines in cortisol in men was linked to poorer mental health. Further research is warranted to confirm these findings. This could lead to the search for potential biomarkers to stratify medications as well as developing novel intervention targets to improve mental health at older age.

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Accepted/In Press date: 25 December 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 December 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 454071
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/454071
ISSN: 0889-1591
PURE UUID: 76c3d1ed-eb0d-48bd-86e1-6c93c4f1576d
ORCID for Ruihua Hou: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6127-1478
ORCID for Leo Westbury: ORCID iD orcid.org/0009-0008-5853-8096
ORCID for Nicholas Fuggle: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5463-2255
ORCID for Cyrus Cooper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-0709
ORCID for Elaine Dennison: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3048-4961

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Date deposited: 28 Jan 2022 17:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 05:04

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