Nature
October 18, 2023
Shuangshuang Ma, Min Chen, Yihao Jiang et al.
202 citations
Ketamine's antidepressant effects last much longer than its short half-life because the drug becomes trapped in NMDA receptors in the lateral habenula, and its release depends on neural activity. In mice, a single injection suppressed burst firing and blocked NMDA receptors in the lateral habenula for up to 24 hours. This sustained action results from use-dependent trapping, not endocytosis. By activating the lateral habenula and opening local NMDA receptors at different plasma ketamine concentrations, the duration of antidepressant effects could be shortened or prolonged. These findings explain the mechanism behind ketamine's sustained effects and suggest ways to modulate its therapeutic duration.
Psychiatry research
January 1, 2024
Wei Liu, Jing Yuan, Yun Wu et al.
19 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduced depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and inflammatory markers (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α) while increasing mindfulness, self-compassion, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in college students with major depressive disorder, compared with a wait-list group. Greater daily practice time and more session attendance were linked to larger reductions in depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. Completers showed significantly greater improvement than partial attendees, indicating a dose-response effect.
Scientific reports
November 6, 2024
Yan Zhang, Chu-Ke Wei, Ping Wang et al.
12 citations
Prenatal stress from unpredictable mild stress during pregnancy leads to depressive-like behaviors and impaired hippocampal neuroplasticity in male offspring. A single dose of S-ketamine (10 mg/kg) given to these offspring on postnatal day 42 counteracted depression-like behaviors. At the cellular level, S-ketamine alleviated reductions in neuronal complexity and dendritic spine density in the CA1 hippocampus and reversed synaptic morphology alterations. At the molecular level, it upregulated BDNF and PSD95 expression and activated AKT and mTOR in the hippocampus. S-ketamine appears to produce antidepressant effects by enhancing hippocampal neuroplasticity via the BDNF/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.
International Journal of Surgery
September 23, 2025
Zhi-Yu Geng, Yan Zhang, Hui Bi et al.
1 citation
Adding a low dose of esketamine during surgery did not improve recovery quality, measured by the QoR-40 score, for patients undergoing laparotomy for gynecologic malignancy as part of a multimodal pain management plan. The result suggests no additional benefit from this intervention. More research is needed to determine whether different doses or patient groups might benefit.