UVic research gives hope for future depression treatment

UVic research gives hope for future depression treatment
CHEK

A brain protein linked to depression could bring new treatment hope to 300 million people with the condition. Photo courtesy UVic/Pixabay.

A brain protein linked to depression could bring new treatment hope to 300 million people with the condition. Photo courtesy UVic/Pixabay.

Researchers at the University of Victoria have uncovered a link between a brain protein and depression symptoms that could raise the potential for new treatments of depression.

UVic neuroscientist Lisa Kalynchuk led a team that found decreased levels of reelin, a large protein in the brain responsible for many cell-to-cell interactions, and an increase of depressive symptoms in both animals and humans.

The study says an infusion of reelin to lab rats suffering depressive symptoms provided immediate relief.

Depression is the highest risk factor for suicide and a leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting 300 million people.

“We know reelin is found in the brain, but it’s also found in the immune system, which is itself linked to depression,” Kalynchuk said in a release.

“We also know that certain immune factors are linked to the building blocks of cells, so we began thinking about how activities within individual cells might be implicated in depression.”

The research team included doctoral student Josh Allen, post-doctoral fellow Raquel Romay-Tallon, and neuroscientist Hector Caruncho and were based at UVic’s Division of Medical Sciences.

The group focused on the mitochondria of cells which produces the fuel for everything a cell does.

If mitochondria aren’t working correctly, cells may not produce enough reelin which the scientist’s connected to depression.

Kalynchuk expects more research to identify other cells and systems linked to depression and could lead to treatment alternatives to anti-depressant drugs.

“We’re trying to propose a new neurobiological theory for what causes depression, which can then be used to develop new treatments that will work more quickly, in more patients, and with fewer side-effects.”

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