The 5-HT1A receptor biased agonists, NLX-204 and NLX-101, display ketamine-like RAAD and anti-TRD activities in rat CMS models

Mariusz Papp; Piotr Gruca; Magdalena Lason; Ewa Litwa; Adrian Newman-Tancredi; Ronan Depoortère

doi:10.1007/s00213-023-06389-5

The 5-HT1A receptor biased agonists, NLX-204 and NLX-101, display ketamine-like RAAD and anti-TRD activities in rat CMS models

Mariusz Papp, Piotr Gruca, Magdalena Lason, Ewa Litwa, Adrian Newman-Tancredi, Ronan Depoortère

Psychopharmacology June 13, 2023 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-023-06389-5 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract

Characteristics	Animal study Peer reviewed
Population	Male Wistar and Wistar-Kyoto rats
Interventions	NLX-101 NLX-204 Ketamine
Dose	0.08–0.16 mg/kg i.p. (NLX-101 and NLX-204), 10 mg/kg i.p. (ketamine)
Duration	15-day treatment period, 3-week follow-up
Topics	Esketamine Ketamine Serotonin
Key points	NLX-101 and NLX-204, like ketamine, dose-dependently reversed chronic mild stress-induced anhedonia, working memory deficits, and anxiety-like behavior in rats, with effects persisting for three weeks after treatment cessation.

Abstract

NLX-101 and NLX-204 are highly selective serotonin 5-HT1A ‘biased’ agonists, displaying potent and efficacious antidepressant-like activity upon acute administration in models such as the forced swim test. we compared the effects of repeated administration of NLX-101, NLX-204 and ketamine in the chronic mild stress (CMS) model of depression, considered to have high translational potential, on sucrose consumption (anhedonia measure), novel object recognition (NOR; working memory measure) and elevated plus maze (EPM; anxiety measure) in male Wistar and Wistar-Kyoto rats (the latter being resistant to classical antidepressants). in Wistar rats, NLX-204 and NLX-101 (0.08–0.16 mg/kg i.p.), like ketamine (10 mg/kg i.p.) dose-dependently reversed CMS-induced sucrose intake deficit from treatment Day 1, with nearly full reversal observed at the higher dose at Days 8 and 15. These effects persisted for 3 weeks following treatment cessation. In the NOR test, both doses of NLX-101/NLX-204, and ketamine, rescued the deficit in discrimination index caused by CMS on Days 3 and 17; all three compounds increased time spent in open arms (EPM) but only NLX-204 achieved statistical significance on Days 2 and 16. In Wistar-Kyoto rats, all 3 compounds were also active in the sucrose test and, to a lesser extent, in the NOR and EPM. In non-stressed rats (both strains), the three compounds produced no significant effects in all tests. these observations further strengthen the hypothesis that biased agonism at 5-HT1A receptors constitutes a promising strategy to achieve rapid-acting/sustained antidepressant effects combined with activity against TRD, in addition to providing beneficial effects against memory deficit and anxiety in depressed patients.

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