Interaction between perineuronal nets and ketamine in antidepressant action
bioRxiv Preprint Server – May 30, 2021
Source: bioRxiv
Summary
Specific brain structures are revealing secrets about antidepressant action. Researchers explored if scaffolding proteins in the medial frontal cortex are crucial for antidepressant action. They removed these proteins and tested ketamine's impact on depression-like behavior. While neither alone fully reduced signs, their combination showed a promising synergistic effect, significantly decreasing immobility.
Abstract
Depression is highly prevalent, increases suicide risk, and is now the leading cause of disability worldwide. Our ability to treat depression is hampered by the lack of understanding of its biological underpinnings and of the mode of action of effective treatments. We hypothesised that the scaffolding proteins in the medial frontal cortex play a major role in effective antidepressant action. We implanted cannulae into the infralimbic cortex to inject chABC and locally remove perineuronal nets and then tested for antidepressant effects with the forced swim test. We further tested if systemic injections of ketamine had an additive effect. Our preliminary data indicate that neither the removal of these scaffolding proteins nor ketamine were sufficient to decrease depression-like behaviour, but may interact synergistically to decrease immobility time in the forced swim test.