Robert D Sanders, Vimal Grover, John Goulding, Alexandra Godlee, Stefan Gurney, Robert Snelgrove, Daqing Ma, Suveer Singh, Mervyn Maze, Tracy Hussell
Benzodiazepines increase vulnerability to infection through α1 subunit dependent Υ-amino-butyric-type-A (GABAA) signalling. Immune cell expression of GABAA receptors and the effect of diazepam on influenza infection was investigated. In patients with pneumonia, α1 GABAA subunits were expressed on alveolar macrophages and blood monocytes. In mice, influenza induced dynamic changes in immune cell GABAA subunit expression: α1 subunits decreased on alveolar macrophage, but increased on monocytes, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells...
May 15, 2015: Journal of Neuroimmunology