Research article
Blockade of stress-induced increase of glutamate release in the rat prefrontal/frontal cortex by agomelatine involves synergy between melatonergic and 5-HT2C receptor-dependent pathways
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* Corresponding author: Maurizio Popoli maurizio.popoli@unimi.it
1 Center of Neuropharmacology - Department of Pharmacological Sciences and Center of Excellence on Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Milano, Italy
2 Department of Exp. Medicine, Section of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research and National Institute of Neuroscience, University of Genova, Italy
3 IDR Servier, Croissy-sur-Seine, France
4 I.R.C.C.S San Giovanni di Dio - Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy
BMC Neuroscience 2010, 11:68 doi:10.1186/1471-2202-11-68
Published: 3 June 2010Abstract
Background
Agomelatine is a melatonergic receptor agonist and a 5HT2C receptor antagonist that has shown antidepressant efficacy. In order to analyze separately the effect of the two receptorial components, rats were chronically treated with agomelatine, melatonin (endogenous melatonergic agonist), or S32006 (5-HT2C antagonist), and then subjected to acute footshock-stress.
Results
Only chronic agomelatine, but not melatonin or S32006, completely prevented the stress-induced increase of glutamate release in the rat prefrontal/frontal cortex.
Conclusions
These results suggest a potential synergy between melatonergic and serotonergic pathways in the action of agomelatine.