Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

While current pharmacotherapies are efficacious, there remain a clear shortfall between symptom remission and functional recovery. With the explosion in our understanding of the biology of these disorders, the time is ripe for the investigation of novel therapies. Recently depression is conceptualized as an immune-inflammatory and nitro-oxidative stress related disorder. Minocycline is a tetracycline antibiotic that has anti-inflammatory, pro-oxidant, glutamatergic, neurotrophic and neuroprotective properties that make it a viable target to explore as a new therapy. This double blind, randomised, placebo controlled adjunctive trial will investigate the benefits of 200 mg/day of minocycline treatment, in addition to any usual treatment, as an adjunctive treatment for moderate-severe major depressive disorder. Sixty adults are being randomised to 12 weeks of treatment (with a 4 week follow-up post-discontinuation). The primary outcome measure for the study is mean change on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), with secondary outcomes including the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS), Clinical Global Impressions (CGI), Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A), Patient Global Impression (PGI), Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) and Range of Impaired Functioning Tool (LIFE-RIFT). Biomarker analyses will also be conducted at baseline and week 12. The study has the potential to provide new treatment targets, both by showing efficacy with a new class of 'antidepressant' but also through the analysis of biomarkers that may further inform our understanding of the pathophysiology of unipolar depression.
...
PMID:Protocol and rationale-the efficacy of minocycline as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder: a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled trial. 2559 20

The risk of developing stress related disorders such as depression is two times higher in women than in men, and social stress is considered the principal etiology for this disorder. Social defeat animal model is the most common procedure to induce social stress in male rodents, but the stressful stimulus and the stress response can be different for each sex. In this regard, social defeat stress model does not fit the social nature of females, and according to the emerging evidence, the social instability stress (SIS) model could be a suitable procedure to investigate this stress related disorder in females. This study aims to systematically review the effects of SIS on physiological and behavioral parameters involved in the pathophysiology of depression, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method on PubMed, Medline and Web of Science. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. The reported physiological measures comprised the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, neurotrophic factors, immune and monoaminergic systems, vasopressin and oxytocin receptors, sex hormone levels and estrus cycle, while main behavioral measures involved sucrose preference test, forced swimming test, elevated plus maze, open field test and social interaction. This systematic review revealed a wide variability on the social instability regimen and on the measured variables. However, all studies agree that SIS model can elicit behavioral and physiological alteration involved in stress related disorders, with HPA axis hyperactivity, increased anxiety-like behavior and disrupted reward system being the most repeated outcomes. A unified SIS application criterion is required in order to obtain consistent data and elucidate the underlying mechanisms of anxiety and depression in females.
 ...
PMID:Social instability in female rodents as a model of stress related disorders: A systematic review. 3019 85