• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Thursday, October 30, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

A biological mechanism for depression

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 22, 2020
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Location of a modified structural protein may identify depressed individuals

IMAGE

Credit: UIC

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report that in depressed individuals there are increased amounts of an unmodified structural protein, called tubulin, in lipid rafts — fatty sections of a cell membrane — compared with non-depressed individuals.

Their findings are published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Tubulin is part of a protein complex that provides structure to cells. This complex also is involved in binding a specific protein called Gs alpha, or Gsa, which is a signaling molecule that conveys the action of neurotransmitters like serotonin.

Previous work established that high levels of Gsa were in the lipid rafts of depressed individuals and that Gsa lost effectiveness when in those lipid rafts. Gsa moved out of the lipid rafts after treatment with antidepressants or after using a drug inhibitor for histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC-6) — an enzyme that removes modifications from tubulin — suggesting a role of tubulin in depression as well.

Mark Rasenick, UIC professor of physiology and psychiatry at the College of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed post-mortem brain tissue from individuals with and without a diagnosis of depression to determine the location and degree of modified tubulin. A subgroup for depression also included individuals who died by suicide.

“While some studies suggest that there are differences between depressed individuals who died by suicide and those that did not, we observed a profound decrease in the extent of acetylated tubulin in lipid raft membranes from brains of all depressed subjects,” said Rasenick, who is also a research career scientist at the Jesse Brown Veteran Affairs Medical Center.

In all groups, there were no significant changes in the amounts of modified alpha tubulin, HDAC-6, or alpha tubulin acetyltransferase 1 — a protein that adds modifications to tubulin. However, there was less modified tubulin found in the lipid rafts of both depression groups versus the non-depressed group. According to Rasenick, the data suggest that diminished tubulin acetylation may be essential in harnessing Gsa to lipid rafts during depression. Antidepressants reverse this process and allow fuller function of Gsa and the neurotransmitters that activate it.

PAX Neuroscience Inc., a company created by Rasenick, researches how Gsa localization could be a diagnostic biomarker in blood cells to identify individuals with depression. Now the company will explore tubulin-related depression therapeutics and diagnostics. This may add new approaches to therapy and create diagnostic platforms to determine, in just a few days, whether an antidepressant is working.

“This work is important because half of the people who appear to be suffering from depression don’t seek treatment,” Rasenick said. “This is likely due to the social stigma surrounding people with psychiatric problems. But having an identified biological basis for depression could help people to realize that depression is not ‘their failure’ and allow them to treat it like any other illness.”

###

Harinder Singh, Justyna Chmura, Runa Bhaumik and Ghanshyam Pandey from UIC were co-authors.

Funding was provided by grants and awards from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (BX001149 and BX 004475), the National Institutes of Health (RO1AT009169, R21 NS 109862 and RO1MH106565) and the American Heart Association (16POST27770113).

Media Contact
Jackie Carey
[email protected]

Original Source

https://today.uic.edu/a-biological-mechanism-for-depression

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3033-19.2020

Tags: Depression/AngerMedicine/HealthMental Healthneurobiology
Share14Tweet9Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Streamlined CRISPR Evaluation Boosts Rare Variant Discovery

October 30, 2025

Steady Commitment to Physical Activity Guidelines Linked to Lower Risk and Mortality of Digestive System Cancers

October 30, 2025

Boosting Supply to Meet the Growing Demand for Muscle Cell Therapy

October 30, 2025

Insights on MELD Exception for Liver Transplants

October 30, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1291 shares
    Share 516 Tweet 322
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    312 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    201 shares
    Share 80 Tweet 50
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    136 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Study Reveals Common Misconceptions Among Americans About Alcohol and Cancer Risk

Streamlined CRISPR Evaluation Boosts Rare Variant Discovery

Neonatal Brain Injury Assessed with Diffusional Kurtosis

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.