Department of Anesthesiology, Women's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Women and Children's Healthcare Hospital, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: shanwufeng@njmu.edu.cn.
2 papers in the library · 9 citations · publishing 2024-2025
Over the past 20 years, research on NMDA receptors as targets for depression treatment has grown steadily, with 5,092 publications identified. The United States leads in collaborations, publications, and citations. Co-cited reference analysis revealed 15 main clusters. Recent hotspots include ketamine (an NMDA receptor antagonist) for treatment-resistant depression, oxidative stress, synaptic plasticity, and neuroplasticity-related factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor. While ketamine's application and mechanisms in major depressive disorder remain a hot topic, its side effects have spurred investigation into new rapid-acting antidepressants.
Prenatal chronic restraint stress (CRS) in mice induced postpartum depression-like behaviors in mothers and sex-specific behavioral changes in their adolescent offspring: female offspring showed depression-like behaviors, while male offspring exhibited memory deficits. Esketamine, given to mothers on postpartum days 1-5, improved these maternal depression-like behaviors and also corrected the behavioral abnormalities in adolescent offspring. Additionally, prenatal CRS caused heightened secretion of ACTH and CORT in adolescent offspring during acute restraint stress, indicating hyperresponsiveness of the stress hormone system. Esketamine's effects on these hormone levels were not reported.