U of S study aims to improve depression treatment
University of Saskatchewan News Jun 26, 2017
University of Saskatchewan research may hold promise for producing newer, faster–acting antidepressants using a protein naturally produced by the brain.
Presented at an international conference, KalynchukÂs research in an animal model shows that a protein called reelin has an antidepressant effect in just one day. Her PhD student Kyle Brymer has been the first to demonstrate this protein can also reverse structural changes in the brain caused by depression.
ÂThis research could change how depression is treated, said Kalynchuk. ÂIf research and trials go well on rats, our work may eventually lead to developing the first new drug in 50 years with a new way of acting in the body.Â
Pharmacy professor Hector Caruncho, who teams up with Kalynchuk on her project, found that people with mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression have low quantities of reelin in their brains. This deficiency affects the release of chemicals that regulate communication between neurons, and affect the ability of neurons to connect, change and adapt over time in response to experience.
Funded by the federal agency NSERC and Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the team aims to find out whether returning reelin to normal levels could work as an antidepressant in rats.
By injecting stress hormones, Brymer simulated depression in rats. Then, during trials, he infused reelin directly into the brain of the rats.
Brymer found that reelin acted faster than current antidepressants on most of the rats. He also found evidence that the protein could still affect the brains of these animals up to a week after just one infusion. This may set reelin apart from most antidepressants, which have to be taken daily by patients.
But the researchers caution that more long–term research on rats is needed to better determine how long reelin is effective and its potential side effects. And development of a drug for humans is still a long way off.
The team is now conducting further testing on rats to investigate less invasive but equally effective ways to treat with reelin.
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Presented at an international conference, KalynchukÂs research in an animal model shows that a protein called reelin has an antidepressant effect in just one day. Her PhD student Kyle Brymer has been the first to demonstrate this protein can also reverse structural changes in the brain caused by depression.
ÂThis research could change how depression is treated, said Kalynchuk. ÂIf research and trials go well on rats, our work may eventually lead to developing the first new drug in 50 years with a new way of acting in the body.Â
Pharmacy professor Hector Caruncho, who teams up with Kalynchuk on her project, found that people with mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression have low quantities of reelin in their brains. This deficiency affects the release of chemicals that regulate communication between neurons, and affect the ability of neurons to connect, change and adapt over time in response to experience.
Funded by the federal agency NSERC and Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the team aims to find out whether returning reelin to normal levels could work as an antidepressant in rats.
By injecting stress hormones, Brymer simulated depression in rats. Then, during trials, he infused reelin directly into the brain of the rats.
Brymer found that reelin acted faster than current antidepressants on most of the rats. He also found evidence that the protein could still affect the brains of these animals up to a week after just one infusion. This may set reelin apart from most antidepressants, which have to be taken daily by patients.
But the researchers caution that more long–term research on rats is needed to better determine how long reelin is effective and its potential side effects. And development of a drug for humans is still a long way off.
The team is now conducting further testing on rats to investigate less invasive but equally effective ways to treat with reelin.
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