Additive Antidepressant Effects of Combined Administration of Ecitalopram and Caloric Restriction in LPS-Induced Neonatal Model of Depression in Rats

Background and aims: Increasing evidence indicates that inflammation in the periphery and neuroinflammation in the brain might be involved in the pathophysiology of depressive symptoms in humans. Relatively little is known about the effects of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) on individuals exposed to differential dietary regimens, like caloric restriction (CR).

The aim of the current study is to assess the antidepressant and antineuroinflammatory effects of CR in single administration and combined with SSRIsantidepressant escitalopram in LPS-induced model of depression in Wistar rats.

Materials and methods: For this purpose, we used 36 Wistar rats and applied 3 behavioral tests for depression (FST, SPT and NSFT) in animals and an ELISA-method for measurement of brain IL-1beta levels.

Results: Behavioral assessment and results from ELISA-method have shown that CR not only augments the effect of the antidepressant escitalopram on forced swim test (FST) and sucrose preference test (SPT), but also reduces the brain levels of proinflammatory cytokine IL-1beta. Combined with escitalopram, CR enhances antidepressant and antinflamatory properties of this SSRI.

Discussion and conclusion: These results show that the response to antidepressive treatment depends on the diverse dietary regimens, especially low-caloric diet. We suggest that the background of this is augmentation of anidepressant and antineuronflammatory properties of some antidepressants by CR. Manipulation of dietary regimens is attractive and new strategy for the management of pharmacoresistant depression.