Vortioxetine attenuates the effects of early-life stress on depression-like behaviors and monoamine transporters in female mice.

In this study, adopting the early-life stress (ELS) paradigm of limited bedding and nesting material, we found that ELS induced depression-like behaviors only in adult female mice, as evaluated by sucrose preference and tail suspension tests. We then examined the ELS effects on monoamine neurotransmission (transporters for monoamine reuptake and release) in depression-related brain regions in female mice. We found that ELS resulted in widespread changes of the expression levels of these transporters in four brain regions. Moreover, systemic 21-day treatment with vortioxetine, a novel multimodal antidepressant, successfully reversed depression-like behaviors and normalized some molecular changes, including that of the norepinephrine transporter in the medial prefrontal cortex, vesicular monoamine transporter 2 in nucleus accumbens core, and serotonin transporter in amygdala. Collectively, these results provide evidence for the validity of using the limited bedding and nesting material paradigm to investigate sex differences in depression and demonstrate that the region-specific alterations of monoamine neurotransmission may be associated with depression-like behaviors in female mice.
PMID: 33485943 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Neuropharmacology - January 21, 2021 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Liu X, Sun YX, Zhang CC, Zhang XQ, Zhang Y, Wang T, Ma YN, Wang H, Su YA, Li JT, Si TM Tags: Neuropharmacology Source Type: research