J Korean Geriatr Psychiatry.  2010 Jun;14(1):38-43.

CREB-Phosphorylation as a Predictor of Therapeutic Response to Antidepressants

• Lee YJ
• Lim SW
• Kim SY
• Jung JW
• Kim JW
• Myung WJ
• Song JH
• Kim DK

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
CREB (c-AMP response element binding protein) is known as a key mediator of the therapeutic response to antidepressants. We investigated the change of CREB-phosphorylation (pCREB) at the early point of the fluoxetine treatment to find out it can be a predictor for antidepressant response.
METHODS
We evaluated the pCREB of T - lymphocyte nuclear extracts from 18 depressed patients at 0 and 1th week during fluoxetine treatment (20 mg/day). Responders were defined as the > or = 50% reduction of HAM-D score in 4 weeks. We compared the changes of pCREB at 0 and 1th week between responders and non-responders.
RESULTS
The responders showed a significant increase of pCREB at week 1 compared with week 0. The HAM-D difference between week 0 and 4 was positively correlated with the change of pCREB response.
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that the early change of pCREB in peripheral lymphocyte can predict the later response of antidepressant. The correlation showed pCREB directly reflects a response status to the antidepressant fluoxetine and clinical improvement.

Keyword

CREB-phosphorylation; Depression; Predictors; Therapeutic response

MeSH Terms

Antidepressive Agents
Depression
Fluoxetine
Humans
Lymphocytes
Response Elements
Antidepressive Agents
Fluoxetine