Division of Biology and Genetics, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010 Jun;35(7):1423-8. doi: 10.1038/npp.2010.11. Epub 2010 Mar 17.
Major depression is a disease characterized by an inability of neuronal systems to show appropriate adaptive plasticity especially under challenging conditions, such as stress. Conversely, pharmacological intervention may normalize such defects through the modulation of factors that might act in concert for the functional recovery of depressed patients, like the neuropeptide VGF, which has previously shown to possess antidepressant like activity. We analyzed VGF mRNA levels in the brain of rodents exposed to stress or treated with antidepressant drugs. In addition, we assessed VGF expression in leukocytes obtained from 25 drug-free depressed patients before and during antidepressant treatment. We found a persistent reduction of VGF expression after exposure to prenatal stress and an upregulation of its levels following chronic treatment with different antidepressant drugs. Moreover, VGF mRNA levels were significantly reduced in drug-free depressed patients, as compared with controls, and were modulated in response to effective antidepressant treatment. Our data provide further support to the role of VGF in mood disorders and suggest that VGF could be a more specific biomarker for treatment responsiveness.
重度抑郁症是一种疾病，其特征是神经元系统无法表现出适当的适应性可塑性，尤其是在面临挑战的情况下，如压力。相反，通过调节可能协同作用于抑郁患者功能恢复的因素，如神经肽 VGF，药物干预可能使这些缺陷正常化，VGF 先前显示出具有抗抑郁样活性。我们分析了暴露于应激或用抗抑郁药治疗的啮齿动物脑中的 VGF mRNA 水平。此外，我们评估了 25 名未服用药物的抑郁患者在接受抗抑郁治疗前后白细胞中的 VGF 表达。我们发现，产前应激后 VGF 表达持续降低，而不同抗抑郁药物的慢性治疗后其水平上调。此外，与对照组相比，未服用药物的抑郁患者的 VGF mRNA 水平显著降低，并且对有效的抗抑郁治疗有反应。我们的数据进一步支持 VGF 在情绪障碍中的作用，并表明 VGF 可能是治疗反应的更特异性生物标志物。
