PMID- 16797865
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090520
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 1532-2777 (Electronic)
IS  - 0306-9877 (Linking)
VI  - 67
IP  - 5
DP  - 2006
TI  - Cysteamine-related agents could be potential antidepressants through increasing 
      central BDNF levels.
PG  - 1185-8
AB  - Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mental disease, but with an unknown 
      etiology. Antidepressants are the main biological treatment for MDD. However, 
      current antidepressive agents have a slow onset of effect and a substantial 
      proportion of MDD patients do not clinically improve, despite maximal medication. 
      Thus, the exploration for new antidepressants with novel strategies may help to 
      develop faster and more effective antidepressant agents. Studies in the recent 
      decades have demonstrated that antidepressants increase central brain-derived 
      neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels and activating the BDNF-signaling pathway may 
      play an important role in their therapeutic mechanism. Cysteamine is a natural 
      product of cells and constitutes the terminal region of the CoA molecule. Recent 
      work has found that cysteamine and a related agent, cystamine, have 
      neuroprotective effects in Huntington's disease (HD) mice, through enhancing 
      central BDNF levels. Furthermore, cystamine or cysteamine injection could 
      increase serum BDNF levels in wild-type mice as well as HD mice. Since activation 
      of the BDNF-dependent pathway plays an important role in the mechanism of 
      antidepressant therapeutic action, cystamine or its derivatives could have 
      potential antidepressant therapeutic effects. Among these agents, pantethine may 
      be one of the most promising agents. It is a naturally occurring compound which 
      can be administered orally with negligible side effects, and is metabolized to 
      cysteamine. Further evaluation of the therapeutic and toxic effects of these 
      cysteamine-related antidepressant agents in MDD animal models is needed before 
      any clinical application.
FAU - Tsai, Shih-Jen
AU  - Tsai SJ
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20060622
PL  - United States
TA  - Med Hypotheses
JT  - Medical hypotheses
JID - 7505668
RN  - 0 (Antidepressive Agents)
RN  - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
RN  - 5UX2SD1KE2 (Cysteamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Antidepressive Agents/pharmacology/*therapeutic use
MH  - Brain/drug effects/*metabolism
MH  - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/drug effects/*metabolism
MH  - Cysteamine/chemistry/*pharmacology/*therapeutic use
MH  - Depressive Disorder, Major/drug therapy/etiology
MH  - Disease Models, Animal
MH  - Humans
MH  - Mice
EDAT- 2006/06/27 09:00
MHDA- 2009/05/21 09:00
CRDT- 2006/06/27 09:00
PHST- 2006/04/29 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2006/05/03 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2006/06/27 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/05/21 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2006/06/27 09:00 [entrez]
AID - S0306-9877(06)00332-X [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.05.005 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Med Hypotheses. 2006;67(5):1185-8. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.05.005. Epub 2006 Jun 
      22.