"Permanently Cheerful" Mice Offer Hope For Clinical Depression

Jacob Cherian - All Headline News Staff Writer
Sep. 06, 2006

Washington, DC (AHN) - Researchers at the University of Nice, in France say they have made a depression-resistant strain of mice by breeding them without the TREK-1 gene. TREK-1 is a gene commonly known to affect the transmission of seritonin, which plays an important part in sleep, mood and sexuality.

The so-called "permanently cheerful" mice are offering hope for a new treatment against clinical depression. This research is significant since it is the first time depression has been eliminated by altering the genetic code in an organism.

Dr. Guy Debonnel an MUHC psychiatrist, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, and lead author of the new research told Asia News International, "Depression is a devastating illness, which affects around 10% of people at some point in their life. Current medications for clinical depression are ineffective for a third of patients, which is why the development of alternate treatments is so important."

Debonnel says, "These 'knock-out' mice were then tested using separate behavioral, electrophysiological and biochemical measures known to gauge 'depression' in animals. The results really surprised us; our 'knock-out' mice acted as if they had been treated with antidepressants for at least three weeks."

He added, "The discovery of a link between TREK-1 and depression could ultimately lead to the development of a new generation of antidepressant drugs."

The study is published in the journal, Nature Neuroscience.