Esketamine reduces postoperative depression in breast cancer through TREK-1 channel inhibition and neurotransmitter modulation.
Cancer cell international February 18, 2025 Jiachi Xu, Mingcan Li, Yu Hu et al. 6 citations
Postoperative depression reduces quality of life in breast cancer patients. Esketamine alleviates depressive symptoms by inhibiting TREK-1 potassium channel protein expression, which enhances GABA neurotransmitter release and improves hippocampal neuron activity. In vitro overexpression of TREK-1 reversed these effects. Analysis of data from 54 female breast cancer patients who had surgery between 2019 and 2023, divided into experimental and control groups based on esketamine treatment, along with transcriptomic sequencing of rat hippocampal neurons, identified potassium ion-related pathways and TREK-1 as a key regulatory gene. Esketamine's inhibition of TREK-1 channels and promotion of hippocampal neuron activity suggest a novel therapeutic strategy for postoperative depression in breast cancer patients.