Discovery opens door to developing non-toxic fast and sustained-effect antidepressants.
- ‘Ketamine alongside conventional antidepressants could amplify therapeutic effects’
- A fast-acting antidepressant ‘is enormously helpful for patients,’ potentially reducing their risk of death and suicide
- Newly born neurons are responsible for both short and long-term antidepressant effects
New treatments for depression are needed that act rapidly and also have sustained effects. Ketamine accomplishes this, but toxic side effects limit its long-term use. Scientists haven’t understood how ketamine was able to do both, which hindered drug development.
A new Northwestern Medicine study brings that goal one step closer. This work identifies mechanisms that enable ketamine to work rapidly and also have long-term effects. The short-term and longer-term effects both involve newborn neurons. However, the short-term effects depend upon activity of new neurons that already were born when the drug was taken while the longer-term effects are due to an increased number of newborn neurons that result from the drug.
Uncovering Ketamine’s Mechanisms
“This study is exciting, because it lays the groundwork for development of non-toxic treatments that exert antidepressant effects within hours like ketamine but that also have the longer-term sustained effects necessary for the treatment of depression,” said senior study author Dr. John Kessler, professor of neurology at DOI: 10.1007/s00018-024-05121-6
This work was supported by grants R01 MH114923, F30MH124269 and K99MH125016 from the National Institute of Mental Health of the