Depression

…circuits implicated in anxiety and depression. The session examines stress-related disruption of neuroimmune communication, including inflammation and increased monocyte abundance. It connects these mechanisms with translational efforts to develop targeted interventions for major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

…Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries, which spans the School of Medicine, the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Engineering. Strategic areas include childhood, adolescent or adult depression, with prospective studies in at-risk samples, and preclinical models of systems-level mechanisms of vulnerability and resilience to depressive phenotypes; exceptional depression

…examines an inflammatory subtype of depression; Cynthia Rogers explores how early experience affects brain development and children’s mental health; Sheena Josselyn addresses memory and engrams; and Christine Yu Moutier considers translating suicide-prevention science into action. Jeffrey Borenstein gives the welcome and Carol A. Tamminga moderates. The programme runs on 30 October from 09:30 to 12:30 EDT. Partici

…can reveal aspects of older adults’ depression and dementia that conventional clinical assessments miss. The session covers behavioural patterns, sleep disruption and treatment responses measured outside clinical settings, and considers how repeated observations can track changes in health over time. Guu also presents plans for a technology-enabled longitudinal cohort to study ageing populations over months and years, discussing how the resulting patterns could inform research and clinical practice. The session includes question

…the immune system and the brain in depression and anxiety. Human observations and mouse experiments connect persistent increases in circulating monocytes and inflammatory signals with stress-related illness. The talk describes stress-responsive neurons that project to bone marrow and regulate monocyte production, release and trafficking. It also considers how stress disrupts the blood–brain barrier, allowing peripheral inflammatory proteins to affect reward regions such as the nucleus accumbens. Together, thes

…research on brain-network patterns in depression and the possibility of using those measurements to support more individualized diagnosis and treatment.

…to exert effects, ketamine alleviates depression within hours, though its clinical use is limited by side effects. While ketamine was initially thought to work primarily through NMDA receptor (NMDAR) inhibition, our research reveals a more complex mechanism. We demonstrate that NMDAR inhibition alone cannot explain ketamine's sustained antidepressant effects, as other NMDAR antagonists like MK-801 lack similar efficacy. Instead, the (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) metabolite appears critical, exhibiting antidepressant effec

…with mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and aggression. Chronic stress or traumatic experiences are thought to trigger the development of depression. However, only a subset of individuals experiencing chronic stress or traumatic life events develop depressive-like behavior (susceptible), while others remain resilient. In order to investigate multiple aspects of dep

Around 280 million people worldwide suffer from depression. However, treatment for this mood disorder is ineffective in 30% of patients. An important target for the treatment of depression is the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), which is the main source of serotonin (5-HT) to the forebrain. Previous research has shown that mecamylamine (Mec) increases the activity of 5-HT neurons by enhancing glutamate release through activation of α4β2 nicotinic receptors (nAChRs), while inhibiting GABAergic release by inhibiting α7 nAChRs in the DRN. This mechanism may explain its antidepressant properties. Howev

Depression is a common affective disorder that represents a heavy burden on communities. Psychobiotics, the emerging group of probiotics and postbiotics that affect brain function and mental health have shown promising results in alleviating symptoms of depression. Postbiotics, bioactive compounds released by/or produced through the metabolic activity of the microbiota, provide various beneficial effects for the host, including antidepressive ones. This study aimed to evaluate antidepressive potential of postbiotic obtained from GABA-producing B. adolescentis NGB329. We tested whether this pos

…mental health disorders, specifically depression symptoms and suicidal behaviors. This study aims to explore the association of emotion regulation difficulties with depression and suicide risk among adolescent undergraduate students. The cross-sectional study used a descriptive-analytical design and sampled 384 partici

Depression is associated with alterations in brain glucose metabolism and impairments in processes associated with the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS). Within this framework, lactate emerges as a promising therapeutic avenue, demonstrating antidepressant efficacy in diverse mouse models of depression, including the forced swim test and chronic corticosterone treatment. Our study explores the impact of stress and elevated corticosterone on astrocyte-neuron metabolic coupling, examining restoration potential of lactate treatment in controlled in vitro and complex in vivo settings. Prolon

Deficits in adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is a common feature in depression and Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Actually, depressive disturbances occur in 40–50% of patients with PD, influencing many clinical aspects of the disease. Indeed, PD patients and mice models exhibited fewer proliferating cells in the subventricular zone and dentate gyrus (DG). Since both regions comprise dopaminergic innervation and inputs from the nigrostriatal areas, it is plausible that dopaminergic system may exert some control over or under cytogenic brain regions.To investigate this, we used a transgenic rat (

Depression, a prevalent psychiatric disorder that significantly impacts quality of life. Cholinergic transmission dysregulation potentially contributes to emotional and behavioral disturbances. While acetylcholinesterase is commonly studied in depression, the role of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) remains unclear. We recently developed the butyrylcholinesterase (BChE)-activatable molecular sensor (BCC) for real-time visualization of BChE activity, demonstrating its efficiency in vitro and in tumor-bearing mice. In this translational study, we employed BCC to investigate BChE changes in depressio

The prefrontal cortex is one of the most commonly studied structures in depression. Synaptic loss and prefrontal circuits deficits have been widely described in depression physiopathology, and their restoration by antidepressant drugs is at the center of their therapeutic effect. Aims: This project aims to test the antidepressant potential of a specific manipulation of prefrontal circuits. Methods: Using the Chronic Despair Model (CDM) of depression, and the DREADDs chemogenetic technique, we counteracted the hypofrontality characteristic of a depressive-like state, and assessed the behavioura

Depression is associated with dysregulated circadian rhythms, but the role of intrinsic clocks in mood-controlling brain regions remains poorly understood. We found increased oscillation of clock negative regulatory loop, as well as a phase shift of Bmal1 expression in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of a mouse model of depression (depression-like behavior and anhedonia induced by daily 10 min swim sessions for 5 consecutive days). Selective disruption of mPFC clockwork with viral Bmal1KO in CaMK2a excitatory neurons blocks the development of depressive-like phenotype in our model of depre

…by comorbidities such as anxiety and depression. Thanks to the work of our team, we now know that the development of these disorders are linked to a dysregulation of the excitatory/inhibitory (EI) balance in cortical structures, such as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA). An essential actor for the EI balance are the fast-spiking interneurons expressing parvalbumin (INPV). These neurons are surrounded by a specialized extracellular matrix, the perineuronal nets (PNNs) which regulate their functions a

Introduction: Early life stress (ELS) significantly increases predisposition to depression. Here, we examined whether the restoring effects of treatment with the fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor URB597, which elevates anandamide levels, are associated with alterations in microRNAs (miRNAs) related with depression and whether specific miRNAs have a crucial role in the antidepressant-like effect of URB597. Methods: In experiment 1, male rats were exposed to ELS using the "Limited Bedding and Nesting" paradigm from postnatal day (P)7 to P14. During P45 to P60 (late-adolescence), URB59

…depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit/hyperac

Drug addiction is a psychiatric disorder defined as a compulsive pattern of drug-seeking/taking behaviors, with recurrent episodes of abstinence and relapse. Addictive drugs increase dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), where it persistently shapes excitatory glutamate transmission, thereby hijacking natural reward processing. Recently, we provide evidence, from mice to humans, that psychostimulants and opiates alter DA-glutamate signal integration in the NAc through a drug-evoked heteromerization (i.e direct physical interaction) of glutamate NMDA receptors (NMDAR) with D1R or D2R. Using

Antidepressant drugs are beneficial for many of the symptoms of depression, but impairments in reward and motivation often remain or become worse. The effort-based foraging (EBF) and the effort-for-reward (EfR) tasks target different aspects of reward processing and motivation. This study investigated the effects of different antidepressants on effort-related decision-making (EfR) and motivation to engage with natural foraging (EBF). 2 cohorts of 16 and 24 C57bl/6J male mice were used in fully randomised, counterbalanced within-subject designs for acute pharmacological studies (escitalopram, v

…psychological factors, including depression, anxiety, and stress, and insomnia among older adults with MCI. 145 Greek older adults were recruited from an outpatient memory clinic in Athens. The sample m

Depression is a concerning public health threat highly associated with stress. Stress increases brain immune alterations, namely in microglia, which can affect neuron physiology, like neurogenesis, causing a depressive-like behavior. However, despite depression being twice as frequent in females, most studies have been done in males. This results in a gap in our current understanding of stress processing in both sexes, and consequently in our current therapeutical approach. Here, we used the social defeat stress (SDS) paradigm in 8-week-old male and female C57BL/6J mice for 10 consecutive days

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) stands out as the most prevalent reproductive disorder affecting women, impacting hormonal and metabolic equilibrium. It can manifest as hyperandrogenism, insulin resistance, anovulation, and infertility. PCOS is associated with various symptoms such as obesity, hirsutism, and acne, which, in turn, elevate the risk of conditions like endometrioma, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. Previous data from our research indicated that PCOS accelerates pain perception in patients, yet the underlying mechanism remains elusive.In this