Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered how medications regulate the immune system. Prozac–also known as fluoxetine–was effective in protecting mice against sepsis. Salk study follows recent findings that users of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac had less severe Covid-19 infections. It’s essentially playing offense and defense, which is ideal, and especially exciting to see in a drug that we already know is safe to use in humans, researcher says.. The study is a huge step toward developing new solutions for life-threatening infections and illnesses, says first author Robert Gallant, a former graduate student in Ayres’ lab at Salk. It also goes to show how much more there is to learn about how to protect the body from infection and protect the immune response, says Ayres, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in the U.S. and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego.
