Hyderabad: Breakthrough in anti-depressant treatment by CCMB scientists

Hyderabad: Professor Amitabha Chattopadhyay's group from the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), here, in a follow-up discovery published in the American Chemical Society journal, ACS Chemical Neuroscience, has now shown that modulating the levels of cholesterol, an important lipid in the cell membrane, could change the mechanism of endocytosis of the serotonin1A receptor.

Professor Amitabha Chattopadhyay's group had previously shown that the serotonin1A receptor internalizes into cells through specialized regions of the cell membrane, called clathrin-coated pits, and thereafter recycles back to the cell membrane. Interestingly, experiments from the team also revealed that receptors that usually recycle back to the cell membrane in normal conditions started getting degraded inside cells when they were treated with statin. "We believe that our findings are crucial in understanding how cholesterol in cell membranes modulates the endocytosis of GPCRs", explains Professor Chattopadhyay

"From a biomedical standpoint, these results could provide novel insights into the mechanism underlying recent reports on the improved therapeutic activity of antidepressant drugs when administered in combination with statins", Prof. Chattopadhyay added.

These studies from CCMB are especially relevant in the Indian context since the National Mental Health Survey (2015-16) reported that more than 5% of the adult Indian population suffers from depression.