Ying Xie, Xi Huang, Sui-yu Hu, Ying-jin Zhang, Yang Wang, Xin-jian Qiu, Ping Ren, Rong Fan, Chun-hu Zhang, Wei-bin Xie, Hui Ji, Juan He, Xiao Chen, Linhong Xie, Zhao-qian Liu, Hong-hao Zhou
It was recently discovered that ketamine can relieve depression in a matter of hours through an action on α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors. This is much more rapid than the several weeks required for the available antidepressants to show therapeutic efficacy. However, ketamine has negative side effects. The aim of this study was to determine whether the natural prokinetic drug meranzin hydrate (MH) has a fast-acting antidepressant effect mediated by AMPA receptors. By means of in vivo and in vitro experiments, we found that (1) treatment of rats with MH at 9 mg/kg decreased immobility time in a forced swimming test (FST), as did the popular antidepressant fluoxetine and the AMPA receptor positive modulator aniracetam...
February 2013: Amino Acids