K.F. performed experiments and manuscript writing.

J.T. performed experiments. Y.S-M. provided advice on manuscript writing Y.S. provided advice on manuscript writing T.S. provided advice on the experimental direction and manuscript writing. K.S. designed the experimental plan and performed experiments, manuscript writing. This work Selleckchem Selisistat was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan (KAKENHI 21700422), the Program for Promotion of Fundamental Studies in Health Sciences of NIBIO, Japan, a Health and Labor Science Research Grant for Research on Risks of Chemicals, a Labor Science Research Grant for Research on New Drug Development Selleckchem Trichostatin A from the MHLW, Japan, awarded to K.S., Grant-in-Aid for research from MEXT, Japan (KAKENHI C23590113) awarded to T.S., and a Health and Labor Science Research Grant for Research on Publicly Essential Drugs and Medical Devices, Japan, awarded to Y.S. “
“Several lines of evidence have

shown that modulation of the glutamatergic system may be an effective treatment for depressive symptoms, a hypothesis that has been supported by clinical observations using ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. Indeed, ketamine has been reported to exert rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder, even in patients with treatment-resistant depression (1), (2), (3) and (4), after a single injection as well as after repeated injections (1), (2) and (5). In a search of alternatives for ketamine, which avoid undesirable

side effects observed in ketamine therapy, investigations on neural mechanisms underlying the antidepressant effects of ketamine have been actively conducted. To date, ketamine has been proposed to exert antidepressant effects through the stimulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-mammalian target of rapamycin signaling and the blockade of eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase, both of which are mediated through the activation of the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor (6), (7) and (8). In addition to these Ergoloid mechanisms, which may lead to an increase in synaptic protein synthesis and spine density (for a review, see Ref. (6)), the involvement of the serotonergic system in the actions of ketamine has been suggested. For example, a positron emission tomography study has revealed that treatment with high dose of ketamine increased serotonin (5-HT)1B receptor binding in the nucleus accumbens and the ventral pallidum in rhesus monkeys (9), and ketamine increased extracellular 5-HT levels in the prefrontal cortex in rats (10), with both mechanisms being mediated through AMPA receptor stimulation.