A mechanism involving potassium channels in the brain that control brain cell activity could provide a new and fundamentally different way of treating depression symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder, according to two complementary papers published recently by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
In two new research articles, published in Biological Psychiatry and Molecular Psychiatry, the researchers provide new insights into how a drug called ezogabine may impact the brain to improve depression.
Depression is a devastating public health problem, and our understanding of what changes in the brain to cause the illness is still very limited. Our work represents a major step in unraveling the potential role of a specific protein complex in the brain-the KCNQ…