Much excitement about antidepressants, DBI and c-FOS

作者：Barbaccia Maria Luisa^*

来源：Pharmacological Research, 2011, 64(4): 333-335.

DOI：10.1016/j.phrs.2011.05.018

• Endacoid for [(3)H]-imipramine binding site
• Antidepressant drugs
• Diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI)
• Depression/anxiety
• Chronic hepatic encephalopathy (CHE)
• NMDA receptor
• c-fos

This article briefly outlines the background and major findings of the research projects in which, together with a number of skilled and enthusiastic collaborators, I was involved at FGIN under the mentorship of the late Dr. Erminio Costa. The topics covered are (i) our search for an endogenous ligand of the [(3)H]-imipramine binding site, as an approach to shed light on the still today elusive mechanisms underlying the therapeutic action of antidepressant drugs; (ii) our attempt to correlate psychopathological states, characterized by dysfunctions of the GABAergic neurotransmission, with an altered brain content of Diazepam binding inhibitor (081), a peptide that exerts a direct negative modulation of GABA(A) receptor function and also, by binding to the mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor, increases the brain content of GABAA receptor-active neurosteroids; (iii) our demonstration that the activation of the glutamate/NMDA receptor, throughstimulation of several intracellular signaling pathways, induces the expression of the early inducible gene c-fos, a mechanism proposed to underlie glutamate-mediated neuronal plasticity.

• 出版日期2011-10