EVALUATION OF BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR AND TYROSINE KINASE IN HYPERTENSIVE INDIVIDUALS WITH AND WITHOUT DEPRESSION IN NAUTH NNEWI, NIGERIA.

Hypertension and depression have garnered significant attention in the medical community with its growing prevalence in the past decades. These conditions have impacted the individuals and society at large. The impact of depression has been found to be notably higher among individuals with chronic illnesses such as hypertension. In recent times, there has been an increasing prevalence of both conditions particularly in low-income countries like Nigeria. Some neurotropic and proteins has been linked with the etiology of hypertension and depression and this study is hence designed to search out for clarification of the claim. This cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the serum level of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tyrosine kinase in hypertensive patients with and without depression. 90 individuals were recruited, this included forty-five (45) hypertensive individuals they were recruited based on their medical history and forty-five (45) non-hypertensive individuals, depressed individuals were recruited witg the aid of public health questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), in total this study comprised of 4 groups; fourteen (14) hypertensive individuals with depression, thirty-one (31) hypertensive patients without depression, fifteen (15) non-hypertensive individuals with depression and thirty (30) non-hypertensive individuals without depression (control). The depressed individuals were determined from screening secondarily using patient health questionnaire-9. The evaluation of the serum levels of BDNF and Tyrosine kinase was done using ELISA. There was a significant decrease in serum BDNF level of hypertensive individuals without depression (119.63±27.66 ng/L) compared with control group (171.57±50.96 ng/L) (p