Journal of Affective Disorders
December 15, 2024
Dan Xu, Guilin Liu, Mingming Zhao et al.
21 citations
Chronic restrain stress (CRS) induces depression-like behaviors and demyelination in the brain; however, the relationship between these depression-like behaviors and demyelination remains unclear. Arketamine, the (R)-enantiomer of ketamine, has shown rapid antidepressant-like effects in CRS-exposed mice. We examined whether arketamine can improve both depression-like behaviors and demyelination...
Neurobiology of Disease
September 1, 2024
Lijia Chang, Yan Wei, Youge Qu et al.
22 citations
Arketamine, the (R)-enantiomer of ketamine, exhibits antidepressant-like effects in mice, though the precise molecular mechanisms remain elusive. It has been shown to reduce splenomegaly and depression-like behaviors in the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) model of depression. This study investigated whether the spleen contributes to the antidepressant-like effects of arketamine in the CSDS...
Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior
May 1, 2024
Li Ma, Akifumi Eguchi, Guilin Liu et al.
11 citations
The gut-brain axis, which includes gut microbiota and microbiome-derived metabolites, might be implicated in depression. We reported the sustained prophylactic effects of a new antidepressant arketamine in chronic restrain stress (CRS) model of depression. In this study, we investigated the role of gut-brain axis on the prophylactic effects of arketamine in the CRS (7 days) model. Pretreatment...
Neurobiology of Disease
December 1, 2023
Youge Qu, Akifumi Eguchi, Li Ma et al.
26 citations
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is the most widely used illicit substance worldwide. Nevertheless, recent observational studies demonstrated that lifetime MDMA use among U.S. adults was associated with a lower risk of depression and suicide thoughts. We recently reported that the gut-brain axis may contribute to MDMA-induced stress resilience in mice. To further explore this, we...
Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior
December 1, 2023
Guilin Liu, Li Ma, Youge Qu et al.
16 citations
Anesthetic ketamine and classical psychedelics that act as 5-hydroxytryptamine-2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonists demonstrated rapid and sustained antidepressant actions in patients with treatment-resistant depression. The new antidepressant arketamine is reported to cause long-lasting prophylactic effects in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated mice and mice exposed to chronic restrain stress (CRS)....
Translational Psychiatry
July 25, 2023
Li Ma, Long Wang, Youge Qu et al.
Relapse is common in remitted patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Arketamine, an (R)-enantiomer of ketamine, has persistent prophylactic actions in an inflammatory model of depression. However, the precise mechanisms underlying these prophylactic actions remain unknown. Given the role of the brain-spleen axis in depression, we sought to identify splenic molecular targets that play a...
Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
December 5, 2022
Youge Qu, Lijia Chang, Li Ma et al.
42 citations
Classical psychedelics with 5-hydroxytryptamine-2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonism have rapid antidepressant actions in patients with depression. However, there is an ongoing debate over the role of 5-HT2AR in the antidepressant-like actions of psychedelics. In this study, we compared the effects of DOI (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine: a hallucinogenic psychedelic drug with potent 5-HT2AR agonism),...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
August 28, 2019
Jiancheng Zhang, Youge Qu, Lijia Chang et al.
56 citations
BACKGROUND: A recent study demonstrated that spine formation rates by ketamine in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were not altered at 3-6 h following a single injection, but were markedly altered at 12-24 h. Here, we investigated the acute (3 h post-treatment) effects of (R)-ketamine in the decreased spine density in the medial PFC (mPFC) and hippocampus in susceptible mice after chronic social...
Translational Psychiatry
December 15, 2017
Chun Yang, Youge Qu, Yuko Fujita et al.
231 citations
Accumulating evidence suggests that the gut microbiota-brain axis plays a role in the pathogenesis of depression, thereby contributing to the antidepressant actions of certain compounds. (R)-ketamine has a greater potency and longer-lasting antidepressant effects than (S)-ketamine. Here, we investigated whether the gut microbiota plays a role in the antidepressant effects of these two ketamine...
Scientific Reports
November 10, 2017
Youge Qu, Chun Yang, Qian Ren et al.
126 citations
Accumulating evidence suggests a key role of the gut-microbiota-brain axis in the antidepressant actions of certain compounds. Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, showed rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depressed patients. In contrast, another NMDAR antagonist, lanicemine, did not exhibit antidepressant effects in such patients....