United States: In a major development, a so called “wonder drug” has been formed where it alleviates major depression within a span of a mere few hours, offering new hope when the traditional ways take many months or days to bring an apparent output.
The experts at the University at Buffalo (UB) have pinpointed the specific binding site of low-dose ketamine, providing critical insights into how the drug works in the brain.
Further Insights on the Discovery
A recent publication in Molecular Psychiatry detailing UB’s findings could help researchers better understand how depression originates in the brain. Additionally, it may accelerate research into using ketamine or similar drugs to treat other neurological disorders.
Ketamine: A Life-Saving Medication
Originally formed as a medication to work as an anesthetic, ketamine has now been generally used in low doses since 2000 to have a fast impact in offering treatment for severe depression and suicidal thoughts.
Gabriela K. Popescu, Ph.D., senior author of the study and professor of biochemistry at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine, explained, “Because of its fast and long-lasting effects, low-dose ketamine has proven to be a literal lifesaver,” as reported by Medical Xpress.
Unlike conventional antidepressants, which often take months to take effect, ketamine works within hours. This is especially important for patients at risk of suicide, as the delay in traditional treatments can be dangerous. Ketamine’s effects can last from three to seven days.
How Did Experts Arrive at This Conclusion?
Since its publication at the beginning of the 2000s, there are now ‘ketamine clinics’ in various cities where the drug is administered through an intravenous drip to treat depression.
However, how Ketamine reached such a powerful anti-depressive effect so promptly remained observed only by signs of its molecular level action.
It is valuable not only in regard to Ketamine specifically but also with regard to similar drugs and getting the most out of them.
Ketamine acts on a category of neurotransmitter receptors referred to as N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, medicalxpress.com reported.
Popescu possesses extensive knowledge of how these receptors create electrical impulses that are essential in cognition, learning, and memory and how these impulses go wrong to cause psychiatric conditions.
“We demonstrate in this article how ketamine at very low concentrations can affect the activity of only select populations of NMDA receptors,” Popescu added.