by A team of researchers from four Boston-area institutions has shed new light on the connection between ketamine’s molecular impact on individual neurons and its broader effects on brain network function.
Ketamine, an Essential Medicine Brain Function recognized by the World Health Organization, is widely used for various purposes, including sedation, pain control, general anesthesia, and therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Although scientists have identified its target in brain cells and observed its effects on brain-wide activity, the exact mechanism linking these two aspects remained elusive.
To address this gap in understanding, the researchers employed computational modeling of previously overlooked physiological details. Their findings offer novel insights into the mechanisms behind ketamine’s production of altered arousal states and its therapeutic benefits for depression.
According to co-senior author Emery N. Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Medical Engineering at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, an anesthesiologist at MGH, and a Professor at Harvard Medical School, this modeling work could significantly benefit physicians by providing a deeper understanding of how ketamine functions.
By comprehending the underlying mechanisms, physicians may be able to optimize the drug’s use, enhancing its therapeutic benefits and minimizing potential side effects.
Lead author Elie Adam, a Research Scientist at MIT who will soon join the Harvard Medical School faculty and launch a lab at MGH, emphasized the importance of this knowledge: “When physicians understand the mechanistic details of how a drug works, they can potentially manipulate these mechanisms to enhance the drug’s positive effects and mitigate any negative ones.”
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1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it.
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