Stimulating immune function would transform the prevention, treatment, research and economics of infectious disorders, among them the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), hospital-acquired infections, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, resistant tuberculosis, a possible avian influenza pandemic and acts of bioterrorism. Immune stimulation is widely held to be beyond our reach, an unfortunate misconception, for as early as nineteen eighty-one published evidence showed that lithium (1) and antidepressants (2) have immune stimulating and antimicrobial properties (3).
In the early 1950’s physicians observed that patients treated for tuberculosis with the monoamine oxidase inhibitors isoniazid and iproniazid became animated and energized, the observation the first that drugs are capable of acting as antidepressants. That monoamine oxidase inhibitors have dual antimicrobial and antidepressant properties curiously failed to impact the pharmacology of infectious disorders. Remission of such manifestations of viral infections as sinusitis, bronchitis, frequent colds, sore throats, cold sores and genital herpes in patients taking lithium carbonate has been reported. In various studies chronic lithium therapy reduced the rate of recurrent labial herpes infections, while lithium and antidepressants reduced the rates of common, “flu-like” colds, and lithium reduced the frequency and duration of recurrences of genital herpes.
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Monday, April 28, 2008
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