title: New perspectives on the involvement of mTOR in depression as well as in the action of antidepressant drugs.
abstract: Despite the revolution in recent decades regarding monoamine involvement in the management of major depressive disorder (MDD), the biological mechanisms underlying this psychiatric disorder are still poorly understood. Currently available treatments require long time courses to establish antidepressant response and a significant percentage of people are refractory to single drug or combination drug treatment. These issues, and recent findings demonstrating the involvement of synaptic plasticity in the pathophysiological mechanisms of MDD, are encouraging researchers to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disease in more depth. The discovery of the rapid antidepressant effect exerted by glutamatergic and cholinergic agents highlights the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway as a critical pathway that contributes to the efficacy of these pharmacological agents in clinical and pre-clinical research. The mTOR pathway is a downstream intracellular signal that transmits information after the direct activation of α-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate (AMPA) and neurotrophic factor receptors. Activation of these receptors is hypothesized to be one of the major axes involved in the synthesis of synaptogenic proteins underlying synaptic plasticity and critical to both the rapid and delayed effects exerted by classic antidepressants. This review focuses on the involvement of mTOR in the pathophysiology of depression and on molecular mechanisms involved in the activity of emerging and classic antidepressant agents.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurosciences, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Health Sciences Unit, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil.|Laboratory of Physiology, Pharmacology, Pathology and Psychopathology, Campus Chapeco, Federal University of South Frontier, Chapeco, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
authors.forename: Zuleide M
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Ignácio
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurosciences, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Health Sciences Unit, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil. gislainezilli@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Gislaine Z
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Réus
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurosciences, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Health Sciences Unit, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
authors.forename: Camila O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Arent
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurosciences, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Health Sciences Unit, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
authors.forename: Helena M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Abelaira
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Meagan R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Pitcher
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurosciences, Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Health Sciences Unit, University of Southern Santa Catarina, Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil.|Center for Translational Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas.|Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas.|Neuroscience Graduate Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quevedo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; C546842:MTOR protein, human; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
keywords: antidepressants; ketamine; mTOR; major depressive disorder