ReviewPsychopharmacology2010
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and depression: a review of the preclinical and clinical literature.
Review in Psychopharmacology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 179 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of nicotinic receptors in alcohol consumption.Pharmacological research · 2023Pooled it
- Substance use during pregnancy and risk of postpartum depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Neurotoxic Effects of Neonicotinoids on Mammals: What Is There beyond the Activation of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors?-A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Human Dermal Fibroblast: A Promising Cellular Model to Study Biological Mechanisms of Major Depression and Antidepressant Drug Response.Current neuropharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- Past major depression and smoking cessation outcome: a systematic review and meta-analysis update.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2013Pooled it
- Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics of Ropanicant (SUVN-911), a Novel Alpha4 Beta2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor (α4β2 nAChR) Antagonist, in Healthy Adult and Elderly Subjects.Clinical drug investigation · 2022Trial
- Human brain imaging of α7 nAChR with [(18)F]ASEM: a new PET radiotracer for neuropsychiatry and determination of drug occupancy.Molecular imaging and biology · 2014Trial
- Effects of short-term varenicline administration on cortisol in healthy, non-smoking adults: a randomized, double-blind, study.Psychopharmacology · 2014Trial
- Effects of short-term varenicline administration on emotional and cognitive processing in healthy, non-smoking adults: a randomized, double-blind, study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2013Trial
- Nicotine in Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Mechanisms and Clinical Evidence.Neurochemical research · 2026Review
- Article
- Galantamine as add-on therapy to escitalopram: enhancing antidepressant therapeutic potential via. Targeting α7nAChR/BDNF/KYN signalling.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Pro-Inflammatory Protein PSCA Is Upregulated in Neurological Diseases and Targets β2-Subunit-Containing nAChRs.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- Molecular Underpinning of Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: A Putative Different Neurobiology from Treatment-Responsive Schizophrenia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- α5-nAChR/NETO2 contributed to chronic stress-promoted lung adenocarcinoma progression.Cancer cell international · 2025Article
- Exploring Novel Antidepressants Targeting G Protein-Coupled Receptors and Key Membrane Receptors Based on Molecular Structures.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Hydroxynorketamine, but not ketamine, acts via α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor to control presynaptic function and gene expression.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Chronic nicotine exposure induces molecular and transcriptomic endophenotypes associated with mood and anxiety disorders in a cerebral organoid neurodevelopmental model.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Imaging Cholinergic Receptors in the Brain by Positron Emission Tomography.Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2023Review
- Review
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Many patients with depression fail to derive sufficient benefit from available treatment options, with up to a third never reaching remission despite multiple trials of appropriate treatment. Novel antidepressant agents are needed, and drugs targeting nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) appear to hold promise in this regard. nAChRs are involved in a variety of neurobiological systems implicated in the pathophysiology of depression. In addition to their role in cholinergic neurotransmission, they modulate dopamine function and influence inflammation and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Preclinical studies have suggested antidepressant-like effects of drugs targeting nAChRs, with the most consistent results observed with alpha4beta2 nAChR modulators such as varenicline and nonspecific nAChR antagonists such as mecamylamine. These agents appear to offer the most potential antidepressant-like efficacy when used in conjunction with other established antidepressant treatments. nAChR modulators also influence neural processes that appear to mediate the behavioral effects of antidepressants, such as hippocampal cell proliferation. Clinical evidence, while limited, shows preliminary efficacy for mecamylamine and varenicline. Taken together, the preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that drugs targeting nAChRs may represent an important new approach to the treatment of depression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.