title: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors as a novel class of immunosuppressants.
abstract: In the past decades, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown to exert several immunological effects, such as reduced lymphocyte proliferation, alteration of cytokine secretion and induction of apoptosis. Based on these effects, SSRIs were proposed as drugs for the treatment of autoimmune pathologies and graft-versus-host disease. This review summarizes preclinical and clinical evidence supporting a role for SSRIs in autoimmune diseases and graft-versus-host disease, and discusses what is known about the mechanism underlying these effects.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, University of Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Veerle
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gobin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, University of Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Katleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van Steendam
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Damiaan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Denys
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, University of Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Dieter.Deforce@Ugent.be.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Deforce
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
keywords: Autoimmune diseases; Graft-versus-host disease; Immunosuppression; Lymphocytes; Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors