14 DAY TRIAL // A new paper published in today's issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry argues that, based on recent information collected while carrying out experiments on mice, it might be possible for scientists to roll out a new class of anti-depressants.
Unlike the anti-depressants presently available on the market, which take months to benefit a patient, these ones would yield noteworthy results in a matter of days, researchers expect. EurekAlert details that, as part of the series of experiments they carried out on mice, scientists attempted to block various serotonin receptors in the rodents' bodies.
When they blocked a serotonin receptor subtype known as 2C, the animals started to display fewer and less intense depression-like behaviors.
The scientists theorize this happened because, once the serotonin 2C receptors were blocked, the animals' brain was exposed to more dopamine, i.e. a hormone that has previously been documented to influence mood.
“We observed fast-acting therapeutic effects in multiple behavioral tasks after we administered compounds that selectively block serotonin 2C receptors,” said specialist Mark Opal with the University of Chicago.
“We began our measurements at five days, but we think there's a possibility it could be effective even sooner than that,” he added.
The new anti-depressants that researchers wish to develop based on these findings would also work by blocking serotonin 2C receptors in the human brain.