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Regulation of Macrophage Biology by Lithium: A New Look at an Old Drug

Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology volume 9, pages 277–284 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Lithium (Li) continues to be a standard small compound used for the treatment of neurological disorders. Besides neuronal cells, Li is also known to affect immune cell function. In spite of its clinical use, potential mechanisms by which Li modulates immune cells, especially macrophages and its clinical relevance in bipolar patients are not well understood. Here, we provide an overview of the literature with regard to Li’s effects on monocytes and macrophages. We have also included some of our results showing that Li differentially modulates chemokine gene expression in the absence and presence of Toll-like receptor-4 stimulation in a human macrophage model. Given that Li has a wide range of intracellular targets both in macrophages as well as in other cell types, more studies are needed to further understand the mechanistic basis of Li’s effect in neurological and other inflammatory diseases. These studies could undoubtedly identify new therapeutic targets for treating such diseases.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support from NIH (grants HL095637, AR055726 and AR056680 to N.P.).

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Authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Division of Human Pathology, Michigan State University, 2201 Biomedical Physical Sciences building, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Pongali B. Raghavendra, Eunhee Lee & Narayanan Parameswaran

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  1. Pongali B. Raghavendra
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  2. Eunhee Lee
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  3. Narayanan Parameswaran
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Correspondence to Narayanan Parameswaran.

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Raghavendra, P.B., Lee, E. & Parameswaran, N. Regulation of Macrophage Biology by Lithium: A New Look at an Old Drug. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol 9, 277–284 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11481-013-9516-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11481-013-9516-y

Keywords

  • Lithium
  • TLR4
  • Macrophage
  • Ccl2
  • Cytokines
  • Chemokines