Substance P antagonists of the neurokinin-1 receptor type (NK1) have growing interest as new antidepressant therapies. It has been postulated that these drugs exert this putative therapeutic effect without direct interactions with serotonin (5-HT) neurons. In line with this assumption, previous intracerebral in vivo microdialysis experiments provided evidence that the NK1 receptor antagonists d...

Our previous studies demonstrated that joint administration of a tricyclic antidepressant drug, imipramine (IMI) with the uncompetitive antagonist of NMDA receptor, amantadine (AMA), produced stronger "antidepressant" effect in the forced swimming test (Porsolt's test) than the treatment with either of drugs given alone. Since it has been suggested that, in addition to their other functions, do...

Background Many patients suffering from depressive disorders are refractory to treatment with currently available antidepressant medications, while many more exhibit only a partial response. These factors drive research to discover new pharmacological approaches to treat depression. Numerous studies demonstrate evidence of inflammation and elevated oxidative stress in major depression. Recently...

Affective disorders are among the main causes of disability worldwide, yet the underlying pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Recently, landmark neuroimaging studies have shown increased metabolic activity in Brodmann Area 25 (BA25) in depressed patients. Moreover, functional inactivation of this region using deep brain stimulation alleviated depressive symptoms in severely depressed pat...

Antidepressant drugs modify in different ways the activity of neurons, by increasing monoamines levels and by modulating ion channels. Sodium channels are molecular targets for antiepileptic drugs, which can also be mood stabilizers (i.e. lamotrigine, topiramate, phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproic acid). After a short overview on the sodium channels and the interaction with antidepressants and ...

Chromium (Cr) (III), an essential microelement of living organisms, was reported to exhibit potential antidepressant properties in preclinical and clinical studies. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of CrCl(3) ip administration in the forced swim test (FST) in mice and the involvement of glutamatergic and serotonergic receptors in the antidepressant-like activity of chromiu...

Stress and psychiatric illness have been associated with a dysregulation of glutamatergic neurotransmission. Recently, positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of the metabotropic glutamate 2 (mGlu2) receptor have been found to exert antidepressant-like activity in rats performing under a differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) 72-s schedule. An autoreceptor role at glutamatergic synapses is ...

Abstract Chronic stress is an important factor to several physical and mental diseases. Ishige foliacea , edible brown seaweed, has various biological properties; however, its role in alleviating stress-induced depression remains unclear. Thus, the antidepressant-like effects of I. ethanolic extract (IE) were investigated using corticosterone (CORT)-treated HT22 cells CORT-induced depressive mi...