Progress in potential targets for fast-onset antidepressants / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Depression has become a serious global public health concern and a prominent social problem.Moreover,the majority of first-line antidepressants that target monoamine neurotransmitter function have significant limitations (ie,low response rates,a time-lag of weeks for a response,cognitive impairment and sexual dysfunction),particularly with the delayed onset of clinical effects which will reduce the patients' clinical compliance and increase the patients' risk of suicide and self-harm.All this highlights a major unmet need for a new generation of antidepressants with fast onset action and low toxic side effects.There has been great progress in the study on pathogenesis of depression and drug targets so far.Recent research has shifted from increasing the level of monoamine neurotransmitter (NE/5-HT) to focusing on regulating the adaptive and plastic change of the nervous system,especially the discovery of new potential fast-onset non-monoaminergic targets including NMDA receptor,AMPA receptor and M choline receptor.This article reviews the investigation into generalized fast antidepressants and their potential targets,in the hope of providing critical information for the development of fastonset antidepressants.