Lithium as an immunologic adjuvant

Lithium, an adenylate cyclase inhibitor, stimulates a variety of in vitro indices of immune function, including proliferation of lymphocytes in response to mitogens, rosette formation by T-cells and phagocytosis by macrophages. Lithium enhances these immunologic responses at concentrations comparable to those achieved in patients receiving lithium for treatment of manic-depressive disorders.Lithium may prove to have important therapeutic applications as an immune adjuvant, particularly in immune deficiency states associated with excessive C-AMP production.