Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.11.26 (GSK)
 6,788 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mood disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders. Although the mechanisms implicated in the genesis of mood disorders are still unclear, stress is known to predispose to depression, and recently, studies have related hippocampal neurogenesis and apoptosis to depression. In the present study we first examined the balance between cell birth-death in the hippocampus and subventricular zone (SVZ) of pre-pubertal and adult rats subjected to chronic-mild-stress (CMS). CMS led to increased corticosterone secretion and induced depressive-like symptoms (assessed in the forced-swimming test); these endocrine and behavioral effects were paralleled by decreased hippocampal, but not SVZ, cell proliferation/differentiation and by increased apoptotic rate. In order to determine if lithium, a known mood stabilizer with antidepressant properties, could prevent the stress-induced events, we analyzed the same parameters in a group of rats treated with lithium during the stress exposure period (CMS+Li) and observed that the hormonal, behavioral and cell turnover effects of CMS were abrogated in these animals. Subsequently, to search for possible pathways through which CMS and lithium influence behavior, cell fate and synaptic plasticity, we analyzed the expression of glycogen-synthase-kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta), as well as some of its downstream targets (B-cell-CLL/lymphoma2-associated athanonege (BAG-1) and synapsin-I). CMS increased GSK-3beta and decreased synapsin-I and BAG-1 expression in the hippocampus. Interestingly, co-administration of lithium precluded the CMS-induced effects in GSK-3beta, synapsin-I and BAG-1 expression. Our observation that specific inhibition of this kinase with AR-A014418 blocked the effects of CMS in depressive-like behavior and in BAG-1 and synapsin-I expression confirmed the involvement of the GSK-3beta pathway in stress-induced effects. In summary, these results reveal that lithium, by regulating the activity of GSK-3beta, prevents the deleterious effects of stress on behavior and cellular functions.
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PMID:Lithium blocks stress-induced changes in depressive-like behavior and hippocampal cell fate: the role of glycogen-synthase-kinase-3beta. 1829 94

Bipolar disorder (BD) affects a significant portion of the population of the world, yet there has been limited success in developing novel treatments for the disorder. One of the major reasons for this dearth is the absence of suitable animal models for BD. Traditionally, animal models of human phenomena have been evaluated based on similarity to the human syndrome, response to appropriately corresponding medications, and the degree to which a model supports a common mechanistic theory between the human disorder and the model itself. The following review emphasizes the use of 'reverse translation', drawing on patient-based findings to develop suitable animal models for BD. We highlight some examples of this strategy, emphasizing their construct validity as a starting point. These studies have produced informative models that have altered the expression of genes/pathways implicated in BD, including the point mutation D181A of mouse mitochondrial DNA polymerase (POLG), glutamate receptor 6 (GluR6), Clock, extracellular regulated kinase 1 (ERK1), glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2-associated athanogene (BAG-1). These studies demonstrate that this method is useful, viable and deserves attention in new efforts to generate animal models of BD.
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PMID:Reverse translational strategies for developing animal models of bipolar disorder. 1940 32