Poster
# 110
Poster |
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6th Internet World Congress for Biomedical Sciences |
Trevor Sharp(1), Elena Castro(2)
(1)Department of Clinical Pharmacology. University of Oxford - Oxford. United Kingdom
(2) Clinical Pharmacology. University of Oxford - Oxford. United Kingdom
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Contact address: |
Trevor Sharp Department of Clinical Pharmacology University of Oxford Radcliffe Infirmary Woodstock Road Oxford Oxon OX2 6HE United Kingdom trevor.sharp@clinpharm.ox.ac.uk |
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[Pharmacology] |
[Psychiatry] |
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are effective in the treatment of major depressive illness but, as with other antidepressants, the drugs take several weeks of administration to reach their full therapeutic effect. This delay may be because the SSRIs cause indirect activation of 5-HT1A autoreceptors localised on the soma and dendrites of 5-HT neurones in the midbrain raphe nuclei (presynaptic 5-HT1A receptors). Interestingly, clinical trials have found that the 5-HT1A/beta-adrenoceptor ligand, pindolol, speeds up the onset of therapeutic effect of SSRIs like fluoxetine (Prozac), although this has not been seen in all trials. A factor complicating the use of drugs like pindolol is that in addition to blocking the presynaptic 5-HT1A receptor, these drugs may also block the postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptor that could be important for the antidepressant effect. Here we have determined the affinity of pindolol for pre- and postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors in post-mortem human and rat brain using receptor autoradiography and the selective 5-HT1A radioligand [3H]WAY-100635. Our data show that pindolol has high affinity for both pre- and postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors in both species. The drug did not discriminate between these sites in the rat but showed a slightly higher affinity for the presynaptic site in the human. We discuss the role of pre- and postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors in the antidepressant properties of pindolol.
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[Pharmacology] |
[Psychiatry] |
