If the immune system attacks its own body, it can often have devastating consequences: autoantibodies bind to the body’s structures, triggering functional disorders. The receptors for glutamate, a neurotransmitter, can also become the target of autoantibodies. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have been investigating the circumstances under which autoantibodies for a particular glutamate receptor—known as the NMDA receptor—are formed, and their effects in the brain. The researchers have discovered that the level of these autoantibodies in the blood can fluctuate considerably over a person’s lifetime—independent of health conditions—and increases with age. Chronic stress can, however, drive up the concentration of these autoantibodies in the blood even in early life. According to the researchers, when the antibodies are able to enter the brain to act on NMDA receptors, people suffer less depression and anxiety. These autoantibodies are clearly acting as the body’s own antidepressants.
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