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Interneuron in depression

Somatostatin-positive GABAergic interneuron: new targets for depression

Molecular Psychiatry volume 22, pages 790–791 (2017)Cite this article

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Current therapies against depression include monoamine modulation, glutamate enhancement, promoting adult neurogenesis or neuronal remodeling.1, 2 A recent study by Fuchs et al.3 in Molecular Psychiatry sheds light on inhibition-inspired therapy for depression.

Alteration of GABAergic transmission has been reported in depression, including GABA synthesis deficits, loss of inhibitory neurons and impaired synaptic functions.4 On the other hand, conventional antidepressant therapies could also restore GABAergic transmission at various levels, as found in selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and ketamine cases,4, 5 and even the electroconvulsive therapy.6 For instance, reduced somatostatin (SST) expression levels were reported in brains from the animal models of depression and post-mortem depression patients. The SST+ GABAergic neurons targets preferentially to the dendrites of principal neurons, and provide feed-forward inhibition (FFI) by limiting excitatory inputs onto the dendritic spines.7 It is thus conceivable that the impaired FFI could contribute to altered synaptic transmission and plasticity in depression. Interestingly, a previous study demonstrated that acute and chronic silencing of frontal cortex SST+ interneurons resulted in opposing behavioral responses under stress.8 However, it remains elusive how SST+ neurons modulate depression-related behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our department for their support.

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Author notes

  1. C Zhang and X Liu: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China

    C Zhang, X Liu & T-F Yuan

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    T-F Yuan

  3. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    T-F Yuan

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  1. C Zhang
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Correspondence to T-F Yuan.

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Zhang, C., Liu, X. & Yuan, TF. Somatostatin-positive GABAergic interneuron: new targets for depression. Mol Psychiatry 22, 790–791 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.11

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