Experimental and Molecular Medicine
October 1, 2018
Yun-Qiang Wan, Jian-Guo Feng, Mao Li et al.
Ketamine has a rapid, obvious, and persistent antidepressant effect, but its underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as important modulators of ketamine’s antidepressant effect. We investigated the alteration in miR-29b-3p in the brain of rats subjected to ketamine administration and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), and a sucrose...
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology
October 1, 2018
Á. López-Díaz, J. L. Fernández-González
To the Editors: W orldwide, major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. Up to 30%of patients with MDD have a lack of response to antidepressant therapies. These rates are even higher in bipolar depression, where treatment options are more limited than in MDD. Patients who do not achieve an adequate...
Journal of neurosurgical anesthesiology
October 1, 2018
C. Andrade
K anesthesia was introduced about half a century ago. In recent decades, this drug, in subanesthetic doses, has also demonstrated efficacy for off-label indications including treating acute and chronic pain, treating agitation, treating depression, and inducing sedation. Thus, there are studies of subanesthetic dosing with ketamine for treating pain in emergency medicine settings, treating...
Journal of neurosurgical anesthesiology
October 1, 2018
Charles William Carspecken, Anna Borisovskaya, Shu-Tsui Lan et al.
Background: Although interest in ketamine use during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has increased, studies have been equivocal with regard to its efficacy. The aims of this clinical trial were to evaluate ketamine’s antidepressive effects in ECT as a primary anesthetic, determine ketamine’s tolerability when compared with standard anesthesia, and determine if plasma brain-derived neurotrophic...
Nature Methods
October 2018
Linlin Z Fan, Ralda Nehme, Yoav Adam et al.
Optical assays of synaptic strength could facilitate studies of neuronal transmission and its dysregulation in disease. Here we introduce a genetic toolbox for all-optical interrogation of synaptic electrophysiology (synOptopatch) via mutually exclusive expression of a channelrhodopsin actuator and an archaerhodopsin-derived voltage indicator. Optically induced activity in the...
Brain Research Bulletin
October 2018
Mengxin Shen, Dan Lv, Xu Liu et al.
Previous studies have suggested that rapid reductions in depression-like behaviors are observed in response to sub-anesthetic-doses of ketamine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist. Neuropeptide VGF (non-acronymic) is a critical effector of depression-like behaviors and is thought to be involved in the antidepressant actions of ketamine that have been demonstrated. However, the...
Pharmacology & Therapeutics
October 2018
Chadi G. Abdallah, Gerard Sanacora, Ronald S. Duman et al.
The discovery of the antidepressant effects of ketamine has opened a breakthrough opportunity to develop a truly novel class of safe, effective, and rapid-acting antidepressants (RAADs). In addition, the rapid and robust biological and behavioral effects of ketamine offered a unique opportunity to utilize the drug as a tool to thoroughly investigate the neurobiology of stress and depression in...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
October 2018
Martin Le Nedelec, Paul Glue, Helen Winter et al.
Ketamine has been shown to produce a rapid and potent antidepressant response in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Currently ketamine is most commonly administered as a 40-minute intravenous infusion, though it is unknown whether this is the optimal route of administration. To determine the plasma concentration time course of the R- and S-enantiomers of ketamine and norketamine...
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
October 2018
Katherine N Wright, Mohamed Kabbaj
Sub-anesthetic ketamine produces rapid antidepressant effects in patients with bipolar and unipolar major depression where conventional monoaminergic-based antidepressant drugs have been ineffective or ridden with side effects. A single ketamine infusion can produce antidepressant effects lasting up to two weeks, and multiple ketamine infusions prolong this effect. Pre-clinical studies are...
Pharmacological Reports
October 2018
Agnieszka Pałucha-Poniewiera
Over the past decade, ketamine has been one of the most commonly studied potential antidepressants. This is because it produces a spectacularly rapid and persistent therapeutic effect in people suffering from severe treatment-resistant depression (TRD), for which classical drugs are ineffective. Similar efficacy was demonstrated for scopolamine, a drug belonging to a completely different...