title: Much excitement about antidepressants, DBI and c-FOS.
abstract: 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 (ì) our search for an endogenous ligand of the [3H]-imipramine binding site, as an approach to shed light on the still today elusive mechanisms underlying the therapeutic action of antidepressant drugs; (ìì) our attempt to correlate psychopathological states, characterized by dysfunctions of the GABAergic neurotransmission, with an altered brain content of Diazepam binding inhibitor (DBI), a peptide that exerts a direct negative modulation of GABAA receptor function and also, by binding to the mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor, increases the brain content of GABAA receptor-active neurosteroids; (ììì) 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome Tor Vergata, via Montpellier, 1-00133 Rome, Italy. barbaccia@med.uniroma2.it
authors.forename: Maria Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Barbaccia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy; D026261:Diazepam Binding Inhibitor / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016762:Genes, fos / Q000187:drug effects*; D006501:Hepatic Encephalopathy / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D017470:Receptors, Glutamate / Q000378:metabolism; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000378:metabolism; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D026261:Diazepam Binding Inhibitor; D017470:Receptors, Glutamate; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid