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Johnston JN, Zarate CA, Kvarta MD. Esketamine in depression: putative biomarkers from clinical research. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2024:10.1007/s00406-024-01865-1. [PMID: 38997425 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-024-01865-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2024] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/14/2024]
Abstract
The discovery of racemic (R, S)-ketamine as a rapid-acting antidepressant and the subsequent FDA approval of its (S)-enantiomer, esketamine, for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) are significant advances in the development of novel neuropsychiatric therapeutics. Esketamine is now recognized as a powerful tool for addressing persistent symptoms of TRD compared to traditional oral antidepressants. However, research on biomarkers associated with antidepressant response to esketamine has remained sparse and, to date, has been largely extrapolated from racemic ketamine studies. Genetic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiles suggest that inflammation and mitochondrial function may play a role in esketamine's antidepressant effects, though these preliminary results require verification. In addition, neuroimaging research has consistently implicated the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and anterior cingulate cortex in esketamine's effects. Esketamine also shows promise in perioperative settings for reducing depression and anxiety, and these effects appear to correlate with increased peripheral biomarkers such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor and serotonin. Further indications are likely to be identified with the continued repurposing of racemic ketamine, providing further opportunity for biomarker study and mechanistic understanding of therapeutic effects. Novel methodologies and well-designed biomarker-focused clinical research trials are needed to more clearly elucidate esketamine's therapeutic actions as well as biologically identify those most likely to benefit from this agent, allowing for the improved personalization of antidepressant treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenessa N Johnston
- Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Carlos A Zarate
- Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Mark D Kvarta
- Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
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Mion G, Himmelseher S. Esketamine: Less Drowsiness, More Analgesia. Anesth Analg 2024; 139:78-91. [PMID: 38295061 DOI: 10.1213/ane.0000000000006851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2024]
Abstract
Racemic ketamine is a 1:1 mixture of 2 enantiomers that turn light in opposite direction: Dextrorotatory esketamine is approximately 4 times more affine for the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor than levorotatory arketamine, which may explain why esketamine is about twice as potent as an analgesic and anesthetic as the racemate. Esketamine has attracted renewed interest in view of the opioid crisis, racemic ketamine's abuse, and esketamine's approval for expanded use. We evaluated the anesthesia literature concerning mental, cardiovascular, cerebral, and antinociceptive effects of esketamine published in English between 1980 and 2022. The review shows that esketamine and racemic ketamine are not "the same" at clinically equivalent analgesic and anesthetic dose: Psychomimetic effects seem to be essentially related to NMDA receptor blockade and esketamine is not devoid of unwanted mental impact. However, it probably involves less cholinergic inhibition. Cognitive disturbances during arousal, awakening, and recovery from the drug are less, and less pronounced with esketamine. The drug allows for an approximately 50% dose reduction in anesthesia and analgesia which goes along with a higher clearance and shorter recovery time as compared to racemic ketamine. In comparison of esketamine with placebo, esketamine shows cardiocirculatory stabilizing and neuroprotective effects which can be seen in anesthesia induction, cardiac surgery, and analgesia and sedation in brain injury. Evidence of esketamine's antinociceptive efficacy is inconsistent, although a recent meta-analysis reports improved pain relief after surgery in a study with short observation time. To better define esketamine's place, direct head-to-head comparison with the racemate at equi-analgesic/anesthetic dose is warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georges Mion
- From the Department of Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Perioperative Medicine, GHU AP-HP Centre, Université Paris - Cité, Cochin Hospital, Paris, France
| | - Sabine Himmelseher
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Munich, Germany
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Danyeli LV, Sen ZD, Colic L, Opel N, Refisch A, Blekic N, Macharadze T, Kretzschmar M, Munk MJ, Gaser C, Speck O, Walter M, Li M. Cortical thickness of the posterior cingulate cortex is associated with the ketamine-induced altered sense of self: An ultra-high field MRI study. J Psychiatr Res 2024; 172:136-143. [PMID: 38382237 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.02.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2023] [Revised: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Subanesthetic doses of ketamine induce an antidepressant effect within hours in individuals with treatment-resistant depression while it furthermore induces immediate but transient psychotomimetic effects. Among these psychotomimetic effects, an altered sense of self has specifically been associated with the antidepressant response to ketamine as well as psychedelics. However, there is plenty of variation in the extent of the drug-induced altered sense of self experience that might be explained by differences in basal morphological characteristics, such as cortical thickness. Regions that have been previously associated with a psychedelics-induced sense of self and with ketamine's mechanism of action, are the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC). In this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over magnetic resonance imaging study, thirty-five healthy male participants (mean age ± standard deviation (SD) = 25.1 ± 4.2 years) were scanned at 7 T. We investigated whether the cortical thickness of two DMN regions, the PCC and the pgACC, are associated with disembodiment and experience of unity scores, which were used to index the ketamine-induced altered sense of self. We observed a negative correlation between the PCC cortical thickness and the disembodiment scores (R = -0.54, p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant association was found between the pgACC cortical thickness and the ketamine-induced altered sense of self. In the context of the existing literature, our findings highlight the importance of the PCC as a structure involved in the mechanism of ketamine-induced altered sense of self that seems to be shared with different antidepressant agents with psychotomimetic effects operating on different classes of transmitter systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena Vera Danyeli
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Zümrüt Duygu Sen
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Lejla Colic
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Nils Opel
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Alexander Refisch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Nikolai Blekic
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Tamar Macharadze
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Department Systems Physiology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Moritz Kretzschmar
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - MatthiasH J Munk
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Systems Neurophysiology, Department of Biology, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Christian Gaser
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
| | - Oliver Speck
- Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Martin Walter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Meng Li
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (CANLAB), Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany.
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Rengasamy M, Mathew S, Howland R, Griffo A, Panny B, Price R. Neural connectivity moderators and mechanisms of ketamine treatment among treatment-resistant depressed patients: a randomized controlled trial. EBioMedicine 2024; 99:104902. [PMID: 38141395 PMCID: PMC10788398 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 11/18/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Intravenous (IV) ketamine has emerged as a rapid and effective treatment for TRD. However, the specific neural mechanisms of ketamine's effects in humans remains unclear. Although neuroplasticity is implicated as a mechanism of action in animal models, relatively few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in TRD patients have examined ketamine's impact on functional connectivity, a posited functional marker of neuroplasticity-particularly in the context of a mood-induction paradigm (termed miFC). METHODS 152 adults with TRD (63% female; 37% male) were randomly allocated to receive a single infusion of ketamine or saline in a 2:1 ratio. We examined changes in connectivity (from baseline to 24-h post-infusion) that differed by treatment, and whether clinical treatment response at 24-h post-infusion was uniquely related (among patients allocated to ketamine relative to saline) to (1) pre-treatment connectivity and (2) changes in connectivity. We examined both miFC and rsFC, using prefrontal cortex and limbic seed regions. We also conducted a multiverse analysis to examine findings most robust against analytic decisions. FINDINGS Across both miFC and rsFC, ketamine was associated with greater in prefrontal/limbic connectivity compared to saline, and lower baseline connectivity of limbic and prefrontal regions predicted greater treatment response in patients receiving ketamine. Greater connectivity increases in participants receiving ketamine was uniquely related to greater treatment response. In addition, certain findings were identified as being reproducible against different analytic decisions in multiverse analyses. INTERPRETATION Our findings identify specific neural connectivity patterns impacted by ketamine and were uniquely related to outcomes following ketamine (relative to saline). These findings generally support prominent neuroplasticity models of ketamine's therapeutic efficacy. These findings lay new groundwork for understanding how to enhance and optimize ketamine treatments and develop novel rapid-acting treatments for depression. FUNDING This research was supported by NIH grant R01MH113857 and by the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute at the University of Pittsburgh (UL1-TR-001857).
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Affiliation(s)
- Manivel Rengasamy
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
| | - Sanjay Mathew
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; Michael E. Debakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA; The Menninger Clinic, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Robert Howland
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Angela Griffo
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Benjamin Panny
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Rebecca Price
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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