ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020
Mesocortical BDNF signaling mediates antidepressive-like effects of lithium.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- A switch in kappa opioid receptor signaling from inhibitory to excitatory induced by stress in a subset of cortically-projecting dopamine neurons.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Lithium Augmentation in Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Qualitative Review of the Literature.Pharmacotherapy · 2025Review
- Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress.Trends in neurosciences · 2025Review
- Dorsal raphe dopaminergic neurons target CaMKIITranslational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Unraveling the Pathogenesis of Post-Stroke Depression in a Hemorrhagic Mouse Model through Frontal Lobe Circuitry and JAK-STAT Signaling.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- α4 nicotinic receptors on GABAergic neurons mediate a cholinergic analgesic circuit in the substantia nigra pars reticulata.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2024Article
- Myelin-associated oligodendrocytic basic protein-dependent myelin repair confers the long-lasting antidepressant effect of ketamine.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- Impaired Ventrolateral Periaqueductal Gray-Ventral Tegmental area Pathway Contributes to Chronic Pain-Induced Depression-Like Behavior in Mice.Molecular neurobiology · 2023Article
- Mood and behavior regulation: interaction of lithium and dopaminergic system.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2023Review
- Appropriate Macronutrients or Mineral Elements Are Beneficial to Improve Depression and Reduce the Risk of Depression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Lithium therapy subdues neuroinflammation to maintain pyramidal cells arborization and rescues neurobehavioural impairments in ovariectomized rats.Molecular neurobiology · 2022Article
- VTA-NAc glutaminergic projection involves in the regulation of pain and pain-related anxiety.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Article
- lncRNA MIR155HG Alleviates Depression-Like Behaviors in Mice by Regulating the miR-155/BDNF Axis.Neurochemical research · 2021Article
- Functional Contribution of the Medial Prefrontal Circuitry in Major Depressive Disorder and Stress-Induced Depressive-Like Behaviors.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Lithium has been used to treat major depressive disorder, yet the neural circuit mechanisms underlying this therapeutic effect remain unknown. Here, we demonstrated that the ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons that project to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), but not to nucleus accumbens (NAc), contributed to the antidepressive-like effects of lithium. Projection-specific electrophysiological recordings revealed that high concentrations of lithium increased firing rates in mPFC-, but not NAc-, projecting VTA DA neurons in mice treated with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CMS). In parallel, chronic administration of high-dose lithium in CMS mice restored the firing properties of mPFC-projecting DA neurons, and also rescued CMS-induced depressive-like behaviors. Nevertheless, chronic lithium treatment was insufficient to change the basal firing rates in NAc-projecting VTA DA neurons. Furthermore, chemogenetic activation of mPFC-, but not NAc-, projecting VTA DA neurons mimicked the antidepressive-like effects of lithium in CMS mice. Chemogenetic downregulation of VTA-mPFC DA neurons' firing activity abolished the antidepressive-like effects of lithium in CMS mice. Finally, we found that the antidepressant-like effects induced by high-dose lithium were mediated by BNDF signaling in the mesocortical DA circuit. Together, these results demonstrated the role of mesocortical DA projection in antidepressive-like effects of lithium and established a circuit foundation for lithium-based antidepressive treatment.
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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.