Ketamine reverses the impaired fear memory extinction and accompanied depressive-like behaviors in adolescent mice.
Mei-Dan Wei, Yuhong Wang, Kun Lu, Bijun Lv, Yan Wang, Wen-Ying Chen
Behavioural Brain Research November 6, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112342 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Animal study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Adolescent mice |
| Intervention | Ketamine |
| Topics | Esketamine Ketamine |
| Key points | Ketamine facilitated fear memory extinction and exhibited a rapid antidepressant effect in adolescent mice via presynaptic-mediated synaptic plasticity. |
Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and disabling condition arising after exposure to a severe traumatic event, which affects approximately eight percent of the population. The underlying neurobiology of PTSD, however, has only been partially understood. The exploration of fear memory and its extinction has been the subject to increase our understanding of PTSD. Our previous studies have already found that adolescent mice exhibited impaired fear memory extinction with accompanied depressive-like behaviors. Considering the relationship between ketamine and its rapid antidepressant function, we hypothesis that ketamine can facilitate the fear memory extinction so as to exhibit an antidepressant effects. In this study, to evaluate our hypothesis, we intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of ketamine in adolescent mice and found that ketamine exhibited a rapid antidepressant effect and facilitated the fear memory extinction. Moreover, ketamine can also reverse the accompanied depressive-like behaviors and restore long-term potentiation (LTP) induction in extinction process, which involved the presynaptic mechanism. Our results suggest that ketamine exhibited an antidepressant effect in FST and facilitated the fear memory extinction via presynaptic-mediated synaptic plasticity, which may provide new strategy for treatment of PTSD.
Comparable studies
Other preclinical and animal studies on ketamine, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| mTOR-Dependent Synapse Formation Underlies the Rapid Antidepressant Effects of NMDA Antagonists Rats | 2010 | Observational study | |
| Activation of Glutamatergic Neurotransmission by Ketamine: A Novel Step in the Pathway from NMDA Receptor Blockade to Dopaminergic and Cognitive Disruptions Associated with the Prefrontal Cortex Conscious rats | 1997 | Dose-response study with microdialysis and behavioral testing | |
| NMDAR inhibition-independent antidepressant actions of ketamine metabolites Mice | 2016 | Preclinical study | |
| The dissociative anaesthetics, ketamine and phencyclidine, selectively reduce excitation of central mammalian neurones by N‐methyl‐aspartate Spinal neurons in decerebrate or pentobarbitone-anaesthetized cats and rats | 1983 | Experimental study | |
| R-ketamine: a rapid-onset and sustained antidepressant without psychotomimetic side effects Mice | 2015 | Experimental study |