CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are frequently used antidepressants. In particular, fluoxetine isusually chosen for the treatment of the symptoms of depression, obsessive?compulsive, panic attack andbulimia nervosa. Antidepressant therapy has been associated with immune dysfunction. However, thereis contradictory evidence about the effect of fluoxetine on the immune system. Experimental findingsindicate that lymphocytes express the serotonin transporter. Moreover it has been shown that fluoxetineis able to modulate the immune function through a serotonin-dependent pathway and through a novelindependent mechanism. In addition, several studies have shown that fluoxetine can alter tumor cellviability. Thus, it was recently demonstrated in vivo that chronic fluoxetine treatment inhibits tumorgrowth by increasing antitumor T-cell activity.Here we briefly review some of the literature referring to how fluoxetine is able to modify, for better orworse, the functionality of the immune system. These results of our analysis point to the relevance of thenovel pharmacological action of this drug as an immunomodulator helping to treat several pathologiesin which immune deficiency and/or deregulation is present.