Shigeyuki Chaki

• PhD
• Taisho Pharmaceutical

The efficacy of currently available medications for depression is unsatisfactory, and that has spurred the development of novel antidepressants based on a hypothesis other than the monoamine hypothesis. Recent studies have revealed the importance of the glutamatergic system as a drug target for depression, and the validity of this hypothesis has be...

Since the discovery of the robust and rapid-acting antidepressant effects of ketamine in patients with treatment-resistant depression, the glutamatergic system has gained significant attention as an attractive target for the development of novel antidepressants. As part of the glutamatergic system, metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors are of int...

Background TP0473292 (the active ingredient of TS-161) is a prodrug of a novel metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 2/3 receptor antagonist being developed for the treatment of patients with depression. This study evaluated the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of orally administered TS-161 in healthy subjects. Methods This was a first-in-human,...

Histamine H3 receptor antagonists/inverse agonists are known to enhance the activity of histaminergic neurons in the brain, thereby promoting arousal and cognition. Here, we report the in vitro and in vivo pharmacological profiles for a newly synthesized histamine H3 receptor antagonist/inverse agonist: [1-(4-{3-[(2R)-2-methylpyrrolidin-1-yl]propox...

We previously reported that MGS0008 is a selective group II metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGlu2/3 receptor) agonist that is effective in animal models of schizophrenia. MGS0008 is a highly hydrophilic glutamate analog and is therefore expected to show low oral bioavailability in humans. To improve the oral bioavailability of MGS0008, ester prodr...

Aims The safety and pharmacokinetics of single and multiple doses of a novel mGlu2/3 receptor agonist prodrug, MGS0274 besylate (TS‐134), were investigated in healthy subjects. Methods Phase 1 single‐ascending dose (5–20 mg) and multiple‐ascending dose titration (5–80 mg) studies were conducted in healthy male and female subjects. Both studies wer...

We previously reported that the serotonergic system is important for the antidepressant-like effects of ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, which produces rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). In particular, selective stimulation of the 5-HT1A receptor in th...

Vasopressin 1B (V1B) receptor has a pivotal role in the regulation of the hypothalamus-adrenal-pituitary axis, and V1B receptor antagonists have shown efficacy in a number of preclinical models of depression. The efficacy and safety of, TS-121 (active ingredient: THY1773), a novel V1B receptor antagonist, was investigated in patients with major dep...

Since discovering that ketamine has robust antidepressant effects, the glutamatergic system has been proposed as an attractive target for the development of novel antidepressants. Among the glutamatergic system, metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors are of interest because mGlu receptors play modulatory roles in glutamatergic transmission, conseq...

Numerous studies have demonstrated the antidepressant effects of group II metabotropic glutamate (mGlu2/3) receptor antagonists in various rodent models. Importantly, it has been shown that the antidepressant effects of mGlu2/3 receptor antagonists in rodent models are similar to those of ketamine, which exerts rapid and long-lasting antidepressant...

Historically, identification of active metabolites has contributed to drug discovery for psychiatric disorders. It has led to the identification of new medications such as desipramine (a metabolite of imipramine) and paliperidone (a metabolite of risperidone). (R,S)-Ketamine, which has been regarded as the greatest breakthrough in depression resear...

Rationale (R,S)-ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, exhibits rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects and anti-suicidal ideation in treatment-resistant patients with depression. However, the precise mechanisms underlying the antidepressant actions of (R,S)-ketamine are unknown. Although the previous report demonstrat...

Regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins are negative regulators of heterotrimeric G proteins that act by accelerating Gα-mediated GTPase activity to terminate G protein-coupled receptor-associated signaling. RGS8 is expressed in several brain regions involved with movement and mood. To investigate the role of RGS8 in vivo, we generated tran...

We previously reported that serotonergic transmission is involved in the antidepressant effects of metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptor antagonists. However, the detailed underlying mechanisms had not yet been explored. In the present study, we investigated the role of the 5-HT1A receptor and its signaling cascade in the medial prefrontal...

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH), a cyclic 19-amino acid neuropeptide, has been involved in a variety of physiological events, including the regulation of stress responses and mood. Two subtypes of MCH receptor, MCH1 and MCH2, have been identified, and MCH1 mediates most of the physiological functions of MCH.

Ever since the discovery of the rapid and sustained antidepressant effect of ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, agents acting on the glutamatergic system have been explored for their potential as novel antidepressants. Among the glutamategic system, metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors, which play important rol...

Background: We previously reported that serotonergic transmission plays an important role in antidepressant effects of ketamine. However, detailed mechanisms have not been elucidated. Among the serotonin (5-HT) receptor subtypes, the 5-HT1A receptor in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has an important role in depression. Here, we investigated t...

Vasopressin 1B receptors (V1BRs) are abundantly expressed in the pituitary, and in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) of V1BRs was recently enabled by our development of a specific radioligand, (11)C-TASP0434299, derivatized from pyridopyrimidin-4-one. Here, we identified a novel pyridopyrimidin-4-one analog, N-tert-butyl-2-[2-(6-(11)C-methoxy...

Despite large unmet medical needs in the field for several decades, CNS drug discovery and development has been largely unsuccessful. Biomarkers, particularly those utilizing neuroimaging, have played important roles in aiding CNS drug development, including dosing determination of investigational new drugs (INDs). A recent working group was organi...

A novel pyridopyrimidin-4-one derivative, N-tert-butyl-2-[2-(3-methoxyphenyl)-6-[3-(morpholin-4-yl)propoxy]-4-oxopyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-3(4H)-yl]acetamide (TASP0434299), was characterized as a radioligand candidate for arginine vasopressin receptor 1B (V1B receptor). TASP0434299 exhibited high binding affinities for human and rat V1B receptors with...

Recently, ketamine has been demonstrated to exert rapid-acting antidepressant effects in patients with depression, including those with treatment-resistant depression, and this discovery has been regarded as the most significant advance in drug development for the treatment of depression in over 50 years. To overcome unwanted side effects of ketami...

We have reported that antidepressant effects of both metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptor antagonists and ketamine in several animal models, and proposed that serotonergic (5-HTergic) transmission is involved in these actions. Given that the projections from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), where the m...

Melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 (MCH1 receptor) is known to be involved in the control of mood and stress, in addition to the regulation of feeding. Here, we report further evidence that the blockade of the MCH1 receptor exhibits antidepressant and anxiolytic-like effects in a variety of animal models using TASP0382650 and TASP0489838, new...

Since the hypofunction of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is known to be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, the enhancement of NMDA receptor function through glycine modulatory sites is expected to be a useful approach for the treatment of schizophrenia. We investigated the efficacy of a glycine transporter 1 (GlyT1) inhibit...

Glutamatergic dysfunction has been implicated in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. The stimulation of metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 2 receptor has been shown to be effective in a number of animal models of schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated the antipsychotic profiles of (2S)-5-methyl-2-{[4-(1,1,1-trifluoro-2-methylpropan-2-yl)...

The blockade of metabotropic glutamate 5 (mGlu5) receptor has been reported to exert antidepressant effects in several animal models. We previously reported that both ketamine and an mGlu5 receptor antagonist exerted an effect in a novelty-suppressed feeding (NSF) test, and that the effect of ketamine may be mediated through an α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-...

Glutamatergic dysfunction, particularly the hypofunction of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The positive modulation of the glycine site on the NMDA receptor has been proposed as a novel therapeutic approach for schizophrenia. However, its efficacy against negative symptoms, which are poorl...

Excess glutamatergic neurotransmission has been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, and the activation of metabotropic glutamate 2 (mGlu2) receptor may exert antipsychotic effects by normalizing glutamate transmission. In the present study, we investigated the neurophysiological and antipsychotic profiles of TASP0433864, a newly syn...

Hypofunction of the NMDA receptor (NMDAr) has been considered to play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In rodent electroencephalogram studies, non-competitive NMDAr antagonists have been reported to produce aberrant basal gamma band oscillation (GBO), as observed in schizophrenia. Aberrations in GBO power have attracted atten...

Schizophrenic patients have been shown to exhibit abnormal cortical gamma band oscillation (GBO), which is thought to be related to the symptoms of schizophrenia, including cognitive impairment. Recently, non-competitive NMDA receptor (NMDAr) antagonists such as MK-801 and ketamine have been reported to increase the basal GBO power in rat cortical...

A 5-trial inhibitory avoidance test using spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) pups has been used as an animal model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the roles of noradrenergic systems, which are involved in the pathophysiology of ADHD, have not been investigated in this model. In the present study, the effects of adrene...

Abnormalities in electroencephalogram gamma oscillations have been implicated in schizophrenic symptoms. N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists produce behavioral abnormalities that are similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia, including social and cognitive impairment, and also increase the power of spontaneous gamma oscillations in the...

Background and purpose: Vasopressin V1B receptor antagonists may be effective for the treatment of depression and anxiety and the objective of this study was to characterize the pharmacological profiles of two newly synthesized arginine vasopressin receptor 1B (V1B receptor) antagonists, TASP0233278 and TASP0390325. Experimental approach: We inv...

α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor stimulation has been proposed to be a common neural mechanism of metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptor antagonists and an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, ketamine, exerting antidepressant effects in animal models. AMPA receptor stimulation has also been shown to...

To delineate domains essential for G-protein coupling in angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1), we mutated the receptor cDNA in the putative cytosolic regions and determined consequent changes in the effect of GTP analogs on angiotensin II (Ang II) binding and in inositol trisphosphate production in response to Ang II. Polar residues in targeted are...

To determine the specific mechanism of ligand binding to angiotensin (Ang II) receptor AT1, mutagenized rat receptor cDNAs were expressed transiently in COS-7 cells and the effect of the mutations on the binding to peptidic and non-peptidic ligands was analyzed by Scatchard plots. Mutation of Lys199 to Gln in the intramembrane domain strongly reduc...

Glutamatergic dysfunction has been implicated in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Both the stimulation of the metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 2/3 receptor and the blockade of the mGlu1 receptor have been shown to be effective in a number of animal models of schizophrenia. However, the efficacy for social cognition, which is poorly managed...

In the present study, to further validate repeated corticosterone (CORT)-treated rats as a treatment-resistant depression (TRD) model, we first examined the effect of ketamine, which is known to be effective for the treatment of TRD, on the depressive-like behavior of CORT-treated rats. In this model, ketamine significantly reduced the increased im...

Withdrawal from chronic treatment with a psychostimulant precipitates behavioral and physiological conditions similar to the symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD). Accumulated studies have indicated that withdrawal from a psychostimulant in rodents elicits depressive phenotypes including despair and anhedonia. Recently, the modulation of the...

Previous studies suggest that metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptors are involved in psychiatric disorders. In this study, we examined the effects of the selective metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptor agonist MGS0028 on behavioral abnormalities in mice lacking the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), an experimental mo...

We previously revealed that the activation of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid receptor and mammalian target of rapamycin signaling contributed to the antidepressant-like effects of group II metabotropic glutamate (mGlu2/3) receptor antagonists, suggesting that the signaling pathway may be similar to the molecular mechanisms un...

Metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptor antagonists have an antidepressant-like effect, but the exact mechanism still remains unclear. This study examined the effects of mGlu2/3 receptor antagonists in chronic corticosterone-treated mice which could be used as an animal model of depression. In the forced swim test, the mGlu2/3 receptor antago...

抄録 統合失調症は，陽性症状，陰性症状，および認知機能障害を主要症状とする精神疾患である．今日まで「ドパミン仮説」に基づく治療薬が創製されてきたが，いずれも陽性症状には奏効するものの，陰性症状や認知機能障害に対する治療効果は十分ではない．近年，陰性症状や認知機能障害の原因として前頭皮質におけるグルタミン酸神経系異常への注目が集まり，新薬開発は「グルタミン酸仮説」に基づく新たなターゲットへとシフトしている．統合失調症の「グルタミン酸仮説」は，皮質神経回路の興奮／抑制バランス異常による情報伝達障害を病態の原因とする仮説である．我々は早くから本仮説に着目し，過剰興奮した錐体ニューロン活性を抑制するアプローチとしてグループII代謝型グルタミン酸受容体（mGlu2/3受容体）アゴニストの創薬に取り組ん...

Accumulated evidence indicates that metabotropic glutamate 5 (mGlu5) receptor blockade exerts antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects in several animal models. The novelty-suppressed feeding (NSF) test is used to measure anxiety-induced hypophagia in rodents. Anxiogenic-like behavior can be counteracted by acute treatment with anxiolytics o...

Recently, abnormalities of glutamatergic transmission have been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression. Moreover, both ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, and riluzole, a modulator of glutamatergic, transmission have been reported to be effective for the treatment of patients with treatment-refractory depression. Based on these findings...

Although currently prescribed antidepressants with actions mediated through alteration of monoaminergic transmission have been proven to be useful for the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders, they are far from ideal due to their slow onset of action and low rate of responses. Although the brain monoamine systems have long been the focus o...

20-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE), an arachidonic acid metabolite known to be produced after cerebral ischemia, has been implicated in ischemic and reperfusion injury by mediating vasoconstriction. To develop a positron emission tomography (PET) probe for 20-HETE synthase imaging, which might be useful for monitoring vasoconstrictive proces...

Major depressive disorder is among the most prevalent forms of mental illness. All currently available antidepressant medications have stemmed from study of the mechanisms of serendipitously discovered drugs, and only 30-50% of patients exhibit remission and frequently at least 3-4 weeks are required for manifestation of significant therapeutic eff...

Abnormalities in the regulation of the hypothalamic stress hormone corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) are thought to play a critical role in mood disorders. Consequently, CRF receptor antagonists have been proposed as potential novel therapeutic agents of these conditions. Sleep disturbance is common in depressed patients and changed sleep-wake a...

Isolation-induced abnormal behaviors are useful animal models for assessing potential anti-psychotic drugs. This study examined the effect of MGS0028, a selective metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor agonist, on abnormal behaviors such as hyperactivity, aggression, and deficits of prepulse inhibition in isolation-reared mice. MGS0028 attenuated hype...

Growing evidence has indicated that the blockade of group II metabotropic glutamate (mGlu2/3) receptor exerts antidepressant-like effects in several animal models of depression. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the action of mGlu2/3 receptor antagonists are not well understood. Here, we investigated the involvement of mammalian target o...

In the present study, we examined the anxiolytic-like effects of (1R,2R,3R,5R,6R)-2-amino-3-(3,4-dichlorobenzyloxy)-6fluorobicyclo[3.1.0]hexane-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (MGS0039), a mGluR2/3 antagonist, in the Vogel conflict drinking test in rats. MGS0039 administered at the doses of 1 and 2 mg/kg ip (yet not at 3 mg/kg) produced anxiolytic-like effec...

A growing body of evidence has suggested that the dysfunction of glutamatergic systems plays a pivotal role in major depressive disorder (MDD). In clinical studies, an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, ketamine, was shown to exert both rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant MDD. The objective of the...

Metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 2/3 receptor agonists inhibit amphetamine- and phencyclidine-induced hyperlocomotion. The mechanism for the antipsychotic effect of mGlu2/3 receptor agonists was studied in a hypoglutamatergic model, but not a hyperdopaminergic model. To study the mechanism for the antipsychotic effect of the agonist in the hyperdopami...

The glutamatergic system is involved in a wide range of physiological processes in the brain, and its dysfunction plays an important role in the etiology and pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. Among the glutamate receptors, metabotropic receptors (mGlu receptors) have emerged as attractive therapeutic targets for the...

Several studies have suggested that modulation of the glutamatergic system could be a new, efficient way to achieve antidepressant activity. Behavioral data showed that group II mGlu receptor antagonists (i.e., (1R, 2R, 3R, 5R, 6R)-2-amino-3-(3,4-dichlorobenzyloxy)-6-fluorobicyclo[3.1.0]hexane-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (MGS0039) and (2S)-2-amino-2-[(1S...

Dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been reported in patients with psychotic major depression (PMD), and a higher rate of cortisol hypersecretion is observed in PMD than in nonpsychotic patients. Approximately 19% of patients who meet the criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) have psychotic features. Accumulated...

The role of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate (AMPA) receptor activation in the regulation of dopamine release by the metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 2/3 receptors in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell was investigated using an in vivo microdialysis evaluation. The local application of 10 microM of LY341495, an mGlu 2/3 receptor ant...

Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) is implicated in a variety of stress-related disorders such as depression and anxiety, and blocking CRF receptors is a putative strategy for treating such disorders. Using a well-studied animal model of panic, we tested the efficacy of JNJ19567470/CRA5626, a selective, non-peptidergic CRF type 1 receptor (CRF1)...

Based on the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia, extensive studies to develop drugs acting on glutamate receptors have been conducted. Among glutamate receptors, metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors, all of which are GPCRs, have 8 subtypes, and are involved in regulation of glutamate transmissions. Of these, much attention has been paid to mG...

Post-weaning social isolation in rodents induces behavioral alterations, including hyperlocomotion, depression- and anxiety-like behaviors, aggression, and learning and memory deficits. These behavioral abnormalities may be related to the core symptoms in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression. In view of the...

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu receptors) have emerged as new therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression and anxiety with their regulatory roles in glutamatergic transmissions. To date, several ligands selective for each mGlu receptor have been synthesized, and pharmacological significances of these lig...

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu receptors), with their unique signaling systems and pharmacological characteristics, have emerged as a new topic in excitatory amino acid research. Among them, the unique distribution of group II mGlu receptors, such as mGlu(2) and mGlu(3) receptors, and the involvement of these receptors in the regulation of...

Accumulating evidence has implicated glutamatergic systems in psychiatric disorders. Abnormalities in glutamatergic systems have consistently been identified in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Marble-burying behavior has been described in literature as a potentially useful measure for modeling OCD in mice. However, involvement of glutamatergic...

Glutamatergic abnormalities are involved in the etiology of schizophrenia. Clinical evidence demonstrates that positive modulation of "glycine modulatory sites" on N-methyl-D: -aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors improve cognitive deficits as well as positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients. In the present study, we investigated the effe...

The bioflavonoid quercetin is widely found in plants and exerts a large number of biological activities such as anti-hypertensive and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the effect of quercetin on the sleep-wake cycle has not been investigated. In the present study, we investigated the effect of quercetin on sleep-wake regulation. Intraperitonea...

A series of pyrimidine analogues derived from ATC0175 were potent antagonists of human MCH-R1 in vitro. Significantly improved receptor selectivity was achieved with several analogues from this series, but no improvement in brain partitioning was noted. One example from this series was shown to inhibit food intake and decrease body weight in a chro...

The atypical antipsychotic profile of (R)-(+)-2-amino-4-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-[1-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-4-oxobutyl] pyrrolidin-3-yl] thiazole (NRA0045), a potent dopamine D4 and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)2A receptor antagonist, was examined in rats. Spontaneous locomotor activity was decreased dose-dependently with i.p. administration of clozapine (ED50...

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) was originally identified and purified in the late 1970s as a kinase (serine/threonine kinase) capable of phosphorylating and inactivating the enzyme glycogen synthase. GSK-3 is now known to occur in two isoforms: GSK- 3α and GSK-3β. Their amino acid sequences show 84% identity overall, and 98% identity within the...

Accumulating evidence suggests that the glycine modulatory site on the NMDA receptor could be potential therapeutic target for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. The present study was undertaken to examine the effects of the glycine transporter-1 (GlyT-1) inhibitor, (R)-(N-[3-(4'-fluorophenyl)-3-(4'-phenylphenoxy)propyl])sarcosine (NFPS), on cogn...

In this paper, we describe the synthesis of (+)-(1R( *),2R( *))-2-[(1S( *))-1-amino-1-carboxy-2-(9H-xanthen-9-yl)-ethyl]-1-fluorocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (+)-16a, a compound, that is, fluorinated at the alpha position of the carboxylic acid in the cyclopropane ring of a group II mGluRs antagonist, 1 (LY341495), using a previously reported stereo...

Background: Melanocortins, which are derived from proopiomelanocortin, have been implicated in a variety of physiological processes. To date, five subtypes of melanocortin receptors have been identified, all of which are G-protein–coupled receptors. Of these, the melanocortin-4 (MC4) receptor has become a particular focus of much attention in recen...

Medicinal therapies for mood disorders neither fully serve the efficacy needs of patients nor are they free of side-effect issues. Although monoamine-based therapies are the primary current treatment approaches, both preclinical and clinical findings have implicated the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate in the pathogenesis of major depressive d...

Compounds enhancing N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor function have been reported to improve cognitive deficits. Since cognitive deficits are considered to be the core symptom of schizophrenia, enhancing NMDA receptor function represents a promising approach to treating schizophrenia. In the present study, we investigated whether d-ser...

The present study examined the role of mGlu(2/3) receptors in short-term social memory using the social recognition paradigm in rats in which an adult rat is exposed to the same juvenile rat in two successive interactions. Intraperitoneal administration of the mGlu(2/3) receptor antagonist MGS0039 (0.3-3 mg/kg) or the ampakine CX546 (0.3-3 mg/kg) s...

Recently, numerous neuropeptides (short-chain amino acids) have been suggested to play pivotal roles in stress responses. Neuropeptides are synthesized in restricted brain regions and act as neurotransmitters or neuromodulators in the brain. Moreover, their expression and secretion are altered upon exposure to stress, resulting in several stress re...

In the present study, conducted to explore potent and small molecular melanocortin-4 (MC4) receptor ligands, we found that tripeptide 3a, containing a D-Phe-Arg-2-Nal (Nal; naphthylalanine) sequence, exhibited a moderate affinity for the MC4 receptor. Structural optimization led to the identification of a compound with a high affinity for the MC4 r...

While examining antagonists of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4 receptor), we found that compound 12b, containing a diphenylmethyl moiety, had a relatively high affinity for the MC4 receptor. When diphenylmethyl analogues were further examined, compounds 12c and 18 were also found to exhibit a high affinity for the MC4 receptor (IC(50)=46.7 nM and...

Olfactory bulbectomized (OB) rats have been considered to serve as a useful animal model of depression in terms of behavioral, neurochemical, and neuroendocrine alterations, which reflect symptoms of patients with major depression. These behavioral and neurochemical changes in OB rats are normalized by the chronic administration of antidepressants....

In the present study, we found that a novel piperazine compound, 11a, showed a moderate affinity (IC(50)=333nM) for the MC4 receptor. We developed the new type of piperazine compounds and found that mono-piperazine 11b exhibited a high-affinity (IC(50)=40.3nM) for the MC4 receptor. We also found that a series of biphenyl analogues exhibited a high-...

During the investigation of antagonists for the MC4 receptor, we found that 10ab having a naphthyl group showed almost the same binding affinity for the MC4 receptor as that of the lead compound 1 with a benzoyl group. We also developed a new type of compounds, namely, bis-piperazines, and found that the bis-piperazines 10 exhibited a high affinity...

The stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH) test in mice has been widely used as models including some physiological aspects of psychiatric disorders. Mediated by the autonomic nervous system, SIH is commonly known to occur both before and during exposure to stress-inducing or anxiogenic situations. Recently, modulation of the group II metabotropic gluta...

Derived from proopiomelanocortin by proteolytic processing, melanocortins have been implicated in a wide range of physiological processes. Melanocortins exert their physiological effects by binding to specific receptors on the surface of cell membranes. To date, five subtypes of melanocortin receptors (MC1-MC5) have been identified, all of which ar...

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a cyclic 19-amino-acid neuropeptide that has been considered to play a key role in the regulation of feeding and energy homeostasis. To date, two receptor subtypes for MCH (designated MCH1 and MCH2) have been identified; the MCH1 receptor has been proposed to mediate the physiological functions of MCH in roden...

There is accumulating evidence that the nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of depression. Given that clinical depression is marked by anhedonia (diminished interest or pleasure), dysfunction of the brain reward pathway has been suggested as contributing to the pathophysiology of depression.Since the NAc is the ce...

A vasopressin V(1B) receptor antagonist has been shown to exhibit anxiolytic effects in a variety of animal models of anxiety. In the present study, we examined the involvement of the pituitary in the anxiolytic effects of a vasopressin V(1B) receptor antagonist by conducting a social interaction test in rats. In the sham-operated rats, both the va...