Effect of a 5-HT7 Receptor Antagonist on Reversal Learning in the Rat Attentional Set-Shifting Test

DSP-6745, a novel 5-hydroxytryptamine modulator with rapid antidepressant, anxiolytic, antipsychotic and procognitive effects

BACKGROUND

Current treatment of major depressive disorder is facing challenges, including a low remission rate, late onset of efficacy, and worsening severity due to comorbid symptoms such as psychosis and cognitive dysfunction. Serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission is involved in a wide variety of psychiatric diseases and its potential as a drug target continues to attract attention.

OBJECTIVES

The present study elucidates the effects of a novel 5-HT modulator, DSP-6745, on depression and its comorbid symptoms.

RESULTS

In vitro radioligand binding and functional assays showed that DSP-6745 is a potent inhibitor of 5-HT transporter and 5-HT2A, 5-HT2C, and 5-HT7 receptors. In vivo, DSP-6745 (6.4 and 19.1 mg/kg as free base, p.o.) increased the release of not only 5-HT, norepinephrine, and dopamine, but also glutamate in the medial prefrontal cortex. The results of in vivo mouse phenotypic screening by SmartCube® suggested that DSP-6745 has a behavioral signature combined with antidepressant-, anxiolytic-, and antipsychotic-like signals. A single oral dose of DSP-6745 (6.4 and 19.1 mg/kg) showed rapid antidepressant-like efficacy in the rat forced swim test, even at 24 h post-dosing, and anxiolytic activity in the rat social interaction test. Moreover, DSP-6745 (12.7 mg/kg, p.o.) led to an improvement in the apomorphine-induced prepulse inhibition deficit in rats. In the marmoset object retrieval with detour task, which is used to assess cognitive functions such as attention and behavioral inhibition, DSP-6745 (7.8 mg/kg, p.o.) enhanced cognition.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest that DSP-6745 is a multimodal 5-HT receptor antagonist and a 5-HT transporter inhibitor and has the potential to be a rapid acting antidepressant with efficacies in mitigating the comorbid symptoms of depression.

Lack of Efficacy of JNJ-18038683 on Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Stable Bipolar Disorder

BACKGROUND

The serotonin type 7 (5-HT7) receptor is one of 14 5-HT receptors. It has received attention for its possible role in mood disorders and cognition. The 5-HT7 receptor antagonist, JNJ-18038683, has been reported to be effective in rodent models of depression and REM sleep. Also, 5-HT7 receptor blockade has been postulated to be a key component of cognitive enhancement in a number of drugs. Bipolar disorder (BD) usually endures cognitive impairment (CI); however, no treatment for CI in BD has been approved. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of JNJ-18038683 to improve the CI of BD compared to a placebo.

METHODS

We conducted a placebo-controlled, 8-week trial of JNJ-18038683 in BD patients. Each patient's data were analyzed and reassessed blindly with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, depression and hypomania ratings, and overall social and work function measures.

RESULTS

Of 60 patients, 38 (63%) were female, 43 (72%) had BD type 1, and most patients were Caucasian and married. The overall time effect for the combined group shows statistically significant improvement from baseline to week 8 for most of the neurocognitive battery measures. This indicates a significant improvement in psychopathology and cognition during the study time in both JNJ-18038683 and placebo groups, but no difference between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed no efficacy for the improvement of CIBD or mood symptoms with JNJ-18038683 compared to the placebo.

Development of a 5-HT7 receptor antibody for the rat: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Our laboratory has a vested interest in measuring the location and expression of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) 7 (5-HT7) receptor in the rat. Determining tissue-specific receptor expression would aid in validating understood and potentially new tissues that support the 5-HT7 receptor-mediated fall in blood pressure, an event we are committed to understand. We contracted with 7TM Antibodies to develop deliberately and rigorously a rat 5-HT7 (r5-HT7) receptor specific antibody. Three antigens, two targeting the third internal loop and one the C terminus, were used in three rabbits to generate antibodies. As a positive control, HEK293(T or AD) cells were transfected with a plasmid for the r5-HT7 receptor also expressing a C terminus 3xFLAG tag. Naïve rat tissues were also used in Western and immunohistochemical analyses. Nine antibodies (3 from three different rabbits) detected a ~ 75 kDa protein absent in homogenates of vector control HEK293T cells. Only antibodies that recognized the C terminus of the 5-HT7 receptor [ERPERSEFVLQNSDH(Abu)GKKGHDT; antibodies 3, 6, and 9] positively and concentration-dependently identified the r5-HT7 receptor expressed in Westerns of transfected HEK293T cells. These same C terminus antibodies also successfully detected the r5-HT7 receptor in immunocytochemical test of the transfected HEK293AD cells, colocalizing with the detected FLAG sequence. In naive tissue, antibody 6 performed the best, identifying specific bands in the brain cortex in Western analysis. These same antibodies produced a more diverse band profile in the vena cava, identifying 6 major proteins. In immunohistochemical experiments, the same C-terminus antibodies, with antibody 3 performing the best, detected the 5-HT7 receptor in rat veins. This deliberate work has given rise to at least three antibodies that can be used with good confidence in r5-HT7 transfected cells, two antibodies that can be used in immunohistochemical analyses of rat tissues and in Westerns of rat brain; we are less confident of the use of these same antibodies in rat veins.

The role of optogenetic stimulations of parvalbumin-positive interneurons in the prefrontal cortex and the ventral hippocampus on an acute MK-801 model of schizophrenia-like cognitive inflexibility

Schizophrenia research has increased in recent decades and focused more on its neural basis. Decision-making and cognitive flexibility are the main cognitive functions that are impaired and considered schizophrenia endophenotypes. Cognitive impairment was recently connected with altered functions of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDAR) glutamatergic receptors, which increased cortical activity. Selective NMDAR antagonists, such as MK-801, have been used to model cognitive inflexibility in schizophrenia. Decreased GABAergic inhibitory activity has been shown elsewhere with enhanced cortical activity. This imbalance in the excitatory/inhibitory may reduce the entrainment of prefrontal gamma and hippocampal theta rhythms and result in gamma/theta band de-synchronization. The current study established an acute MK-801 administration model of schizophrenia-like cognitive inflexibility in rats and used the attentional set-shifting task in which rats learned to switch/reverse the relevant rule. During the task, we used in vivo optogenetic stimulations of parvalbumin-positive interneurons at specific light pulses in the prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus. The first experiments showed that acute dizocilpine in rats produced schizophrenia-like cognitive inflexibility. The second set of experiments demonstrated that specific optogenetic stimulation at specific frequencies of parvalbumin-positive interneurons in the prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus rescued the cognitive flexibility rats that received acute MK-801. These findings advance our knowledge of the pivotal role of parvalbumin interneurons in schizophrenia-like cognitive impairment and may guide further research on this severe psychiatric disorder.

Adjunctive Clotiapine for the Management of Delusions in Two Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

Clotiapine is an atypical antipsychotic indicated for the management of a series of acute psychotic disorders. The current literature lacks evidence concerning the tolerability and clinical use of this drug in the management of individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). In this study, we report two cases of adolescents with AN, treated with clotiapine. The reason for the administration of clotiapine was, for both patients, the manifestation of bizarre delusions concerning food and calories. Patient 1 presented a presyncope after the first dose of clotiapine, and treatment was rapidly discontinued. Patient 2 was treated with clotiapine for 9 months; doses were titrated from 20 mg/day to 70 mg/day, with an improvement in the reported delusions, which also enhanced compliance with psychological and nutritional interventions. EKG, QTc, white blood count, and red blood count were not relevantly influenced by the introduction of clotiapine in either patient. No extrapyramidal effect was documented. These reports stress the need for further studies assessing the tolerability and potential effect of clotiapine in treating adolescents with AN and delusional symptomatology.