Lecture 3 - Neuropharmacology Flashcards
What are the symptoms of depression?
Anhedonia
Sustained bad mood
Low serotonin –. bad mood
Low NA –> low drive
What is anhedonia?
the inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activites
What are the key anti-depressants also used as anxiolytics?
Tricyclics
SSRIs
SNRIs
MAOIs
How do tric-cyclics work?
They inhibit NA and 5HT reuptake therefore increasing the synaptic concentration of both.
Give an example tri-cyclic
Amoxapine
How do SSRIs work?
They inhibit 5HT reuptake –> Increased synaptic serotonin
Give an example of an SSRI
Citalopram
How do MAOIs work?
They inhibit monoamine oxidase leading to increased synaptic NA and 5HT concentrations
Give an example MAOI
moclobemide
How do SNRIs work?
They inhibit both NA and 5HT reuptake thus increasing synaptic concentrations of NA and 5HT
Higher efficacy than try-cyclics
Give an example SNRI
Venlafaxine
How come the results of anti-depressants/anxiolytics can take weeks-months?
An increase in synaptic NA and 5HT causes increases neurogenesis int he dentate gyrus, increase in dendrite arborisation and synaptogensis and pre-synaptic desenstization
What is the key problem with developing new anti-depressants and anxiolytics?
There is a huge placebo effect
What are promising new targets for anti-depressant development?
Sodium dependent serotonin transporter and the noradrenine transporter Opoid receptors NMDA receptors mGluR5 mGluR7
Outline the process of validating a new drug target for emotional disorders
Is it localised in key areas?
Perform genetic studies: ablation, KO
Use agonists and antagonists
Drug screening for suitable antagonists
What are the patterns of communication in the nervous system?
Point to point
Diffuse modulatory
What NTs does Point to point communication use?
Glu and GABA