• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Monday, October 6, 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

New avenue for anti-depressant therapy discovered

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
January 24, 2017
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: Turku Centre for Biotechnology

Finnish researchers have made a ground-breaking discovery revealing new molecular information on how the brain regulates depression and anxiety. They found that a protein called JNK when active, represses the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus. By inhibiting JNK solely in newly generated nerve cells in this region, they were able to alleviate anxiety and depressive behaviour in mice.

The work was led by research director Eleanor Coffey, who works at the Turku Centre for Biotechnology, a joint unit of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University.

We identified a new molecule that alleviates anxiety and depressive behaviour in rodents. This previously unknown mechanism brings fresh insight on how the brain works to regulate mood and indicates that inhibitors of JNK, such as the one used here, can provide a new avenue for anti-depressant and anxiolytic drug development, Coffey says.

Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent disorders and represent one of the largest causes of disability worldwide. These results are important as many patients to not respond to current treatments and it has long been recognised that new mechanistic understanding of these disorders would be necessary in order to identify drugs for treatment resistant depression.

Researchers used virus tools to find out where in the brain the JNK inhibitor acted to improve mood. They found out the molecule acts to alleviate anxiety and depression by controlling newly born nerve cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that controls emotions and learning.

The next step will be to do further tests in rodents. Researchers will test JNK:s additional benefit to existing anti-depressant drugs.

Although we uncover a new mechanism and a new inhibitor molecule that alleviates depression and anxiety in mice, we need to see if this provides additional benefit to existing drugs. Thus, we will do experiments where we administer this new inhibitor together with commonly used drugs and measure fine behavioral details in the mice, Coffey says.

The inhibitor that researchers used is already in clinical trials for stroke and hearing loss.

Actually many large pharma have over the years developed a range of inhibitors to JNK. However it was not earlier known that JNK regulated emotional behavior, so an important message from this study is that JNK should be considered seriously as a target for novel treatments of anxiety and depression.

###

The work, led by Eleanor Coffey, Research Director at Åbo Akademi University is a collaborative effort between scientists in Finland and the US. The research was funded by the EU-funded Marie Curie Initial Training Network r'BIRTH, by the Academy of Finland, Turku Network in Molecular Biosciences and the National Institute on Aging.

The results are published in the Nature Publishing Group Journal, Molecular Psychiatry. Link to publication: http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp2016203a.html

PHOTO https://apps.utu.fi/media/tiedostot/dcx.png: The image, taken at the Cell Imaging Core, shows these new born cells in the hippocampus, the region of the brain that controls emotions.

More information: research director Eleanor Coffey, [email protected]

Media Contact

Research Director Eleanor Coffey
[email protected]

http://www.utu.fi/en/

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

N6-methyladenosine Enhances Pork Muscle Quality via Myofiber Regulation

N6-methyladenosine Enhances Pork Muscle Quality via Myofiber Regulation

October 6, 2025
blank

Designing Thiadiazole β-Carboline Derivatives as Glucosidase Inhibitors

October 6, 2025

Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Linked to Neuromyelitis Optica Case

October 6, 2025

Innovative Modeling for Transcriptomics in FFPE Samples

October 6, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    94 shares
    Share 38 Tweet 24
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    92 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Insights Suggest ALS May Be an Autoimmune Disease

    71 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    75 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19

About

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

Follow us

Recent News

N6-methyladenosine Enhances Pork Muscle Quality via Myofiber Regulation

Designing Thiadiazole β-Carboline Derivatives as Glucosidase Inhibitors

Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Linked to Neuromyelitis Optica Case

Subscribe to Blog via Email

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

Join 62 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.