Growing evidence indicates that glia pathology and amino-acid neurotransmitter system abnormalities contribute to the pathophysiology and possibly the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder. This study investigates changes in glial function occurring in the rat prefrontal cortex (PFC) after chronic unpredictable stress (CUS), a rodent model of depression. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of riluzole, a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of amyotrophic laterosclerosis, known to modulate glutamate release and facilate glutamate uptake, on CUS-induced glial dysfunction and depressive-like behaviors. We provide the first experimental evidence that chronic stress impairs cortical glial function. Animals exposed to CUS and showing behavioral deficits in sucrose preference and active avoidance exhibited significant decreases in 13C-acetate metabolism reflecting glial cell metabolism, and glial fibrillary associated protein (GFAP) mRNA expression in the PFC. The cellular, metabolic and behavioral alterations induced by CUS were reversed and/or blocked by chronic treatment with the glutamate-modulating drug riluzole. The beneficial effects of riluzole on CUS-induced anhedonia and helplessness demonstrate the antidepressant action of riluzole in rodents. Riluzole treatment also reversed CUS-induced reductions in glial metabolism and GFAP mRNA expression. Our results are consistent with recent open-label clinical trials showing the drug's effect in mood and anxiety disorders. This study provides further validation of hypothesis that glial dysfunction and disrupted amino-acid neurotransmission contribute to the pathophysiology of depression and that modulation of glutamate metabolism, uptake and/or release represent viable targets for antidepressant drug development.

Previous 13C magnetic resonance spectroscopy experiments have shown that over a wide range of neuronal activity, approximately one molecule of glucose is oxidized for every molecule of glutamate released by neurons and recycled through astrocytic glutamine. The measured kinetics were shown to agree with the stoichiometry of a hypothetical astrocyte-to-neuron lactate shuttle model, which predicted negligible functional neuronal uptake of glucose. To test this model, we measured the uptake and phosphorylation of glucose in nerve terminals isolated from rats infused with the glucose analog, 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) in vivo. The concentrations of phosphorylated FDG (FDG 6P ), normalized with respect to known neuronal metabolites, were compared in nerve terminals, homogenate, and cortex of anesthetized rats with and without bicuculline-induced seizures. The increase in FDG 6P in nerve terminals agreed well with the increase in cortical neuronal glucose oxidation measured previously under the same conditions in vivo, indicating that direct uptake and oxidation of glucose in nerve terminals is substantial under resting and activated conditions. These results suggest that neuronal glucose-derived pyruvate is the major oxidative fuel for activated neurons, not lactate-derived from astrocytes, contradicting predictions of the original astrocyte-to-neuron lactate shuttle model under the range of study conditions. neuroenergetics | glutamate−glutamine cycle | neuronal glucose phosphorylation | synaptoneurosomes | 2-fluorodeoxyglucose M etabolic and neurophysiological research has experimentally related brain energy consumption, in the form of glucose oxidation, to the brain work supporting neuronal firing. Carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) measurements (1, 2) of the associated fluxes in cerebral cortex of anesthetized rats over a range of electrical activity revealed, surprisingly, a near 1:1 relationship (in molar equivalent units) between increments in the glutamate−glutamine neurotransmitter cycle and neuronal glucose oxidation. Subsequent studies of rat and human cerebral cortex have been consistent with this finding (3, 4). The near 1:1 flux relation was consistent with a cellular/ molecular model, originally proposed by Pellerin and Magistretti (5), and subsequently expanded to include the glutamate/glutamine cycle (1, 6). Evidence for the astrocyte-to-neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) model is summarized in ref. 7. In this model (Fig. 1A), glutamate released from neurons is taken up by astrocytes and converted to glutamine using ATP derived from glycolysis. Lactate produced by this process is transferred to neurons where oxidation occurs. This ANLS model predicts a 1:1 relationship between increments in astrocytic glutamate uptake and glycolysis. Glycolytically derived ATP might provide for more rapid clearance of glutamate from the synaptic cleft into astrocyte processes devoid of mitochondria (8).The ANLS hypothesis has been challenged on biochemical, in vivo, in situ, and in vitro experimental a...

The ability of ketamine administration to activate prefrontal glutamate neurotransmission is thought to be a key mechanism contributing to its transient psychotomimetic effects and its delayed and sustained antidepressant effects. Rodent studies employing carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (C MRS) methods have shown ketamine and other N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists to transiently increase measures reflecting glutamate-glutamine cycling and glutamate neurotransmission in the frontal cortex. However, there are not yet direct measures of glutamate neurotransmission in vivo in humans to support these hypotheses. The current first-level pilot study employed a novel prefrontal C MRS approach similar to that used in the rodent studies for direct measurement of ketamine effects on glutamate-glutamine cycling. Twenty-one participants (14 healthy and 7 depressed) completed twoC MRS scans during infusion of normal saline or subanesthetic doses of ketamine. Compared to placebo, ketamine increased prefrontal glutamate-glutamine cycling, as indicated by a 13% increase in C glutamine enrichment (t = 2.4, p = 0.02). We found no evidence of ketamine effects on oxidative energy production, as reflected byC glutamate enrichment. During ketamine infusion, the ratio of C glutamate/glutamine enrichments, a putative measure of neurotransmission strength, was correlated with the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (r = -0.54, p = 0.048). These findings provide the most direct evidence in humans to date that ketamine increases glutamate release in the prefrontal cortex, a mechanism previously linked to schizophrenia pathophysiology and implicated in the induction of rapid antidepressant effects.

Several drugs have recently been reported to induce rapid antidepressant effects in clinical trials and rodent models. Although the cellular mechanisms involved remain unclear, reports suggest that increased glutamate transmission contributes to these effects. Here, we demonstrate that the antidepressant-like efficacy of three unique drugs, with reported rapid onset antidepressant properties, is coupled with a rapid transient rise in glutamate cycling in medial prefronal cortex (mPFC) of awake rats as measured by ex vivo 1H-[13C]-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Rats were acutely pre-treated by intraperitoneal injection with a single dose of ketamine (1,3,10,30,80mg/kg), Ro 25-6981 (1,3,10mg/kg), scopolamine (5,25,100μg/kg) or vehicle (controls). At fixed times after drug injection animals received an intravenous infusion of [1,6-13C2]glucose for 8 min to enrich brain amino acid pools with 13C, followed by rapid euthanasia. The mPFC was dissected, extracted with ethanol and metabolite 13C enrichments measured. We found a clear dose dependent effect of ketamine and Ro 25-6981 on behavior and the percent of 13C-enrichment of glutamate, glutamine and GABA. Further, we also found an effect of scopolamine on both cycling and behavior. These studies demonstrate that three pharmacologically distinct classes of drugs, clinically related through their reported rapid antidepressant actions, share the common ability to rapidly stimulate glutamate cycling at doses pertinent for their antidepressant-like efficacy. We conclude that increased cycling precedes the antidepressant action at behaviorally effective doses and suggests the rapid change in cycling could be used to predict efficacy of novel agents or identify doses with antidepressant activity.

Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) catalyzes the NADP-dependent oxidation of succinic semialdehyde to succinate, the final step of the GABA shunt pathway. SSADH deficiency in humans is associated with excessive elevation of GABA and c-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Recent studies of SSADH-null mice show that elevated GABA and GHB are accompanied by reduced glutamine, a known precursor of the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA. In this study, cerebral metabolism was investigated in urethane-anesthetized SSADH-null and wild-type 17-day-old mice by intraperitoneal infusion of [1,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] C incorporated per gram of brain tissue) for glutamate-(C4,C3), glutamine-C4, succinate-(C3/2), and aspartate-C3 in SSADH-null cortex, whereas Ala-C3 was higher and GABA-C2 unchanged.13 C Labeling from [2-13 C]acetate, a glial substrate, was lower mainly in glutamine-C4 and glutamate-(C4,C3). GHB was labeled by both substrates in SSADH-null mice consistent with GABA as precursor. Our findings indicate that SSADH deficiency is associated with major alterations in glutamate and glutamine metabolism in glia and neurons with surprisingly lesser effects on GABA synthesis.

The contribution of glutamatergic and c-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic neurons to oxidative energy metabolism and neurotransmission in the developing brain is not known. Glutamatergic and GABAergic fluxes were assessed in neocortex of postnatal day 10 (P10) and 30 (P30) urethaneanesthetized rats infused intravenously with [1,6-13 C 2 ]glucose for different time intervals (time course) or with [2-13 C]acetate for 2 to 3 h (steady state). Amino acid levels and 13 C enrichments were determined in tissue extracts ex vivo using 1 H-[ 13 C]-NMR spectroscopy. Metabolic fluxes were estimated from the best fits of a three-compartment metabolic model (glutamatergic neurons, GABAergic neurons, and astroglia) to the 13 C-enrichment time courses of amino acids from [1,6-13 C 2 ]glucose, constrained by the ratios of neurotransmitter cycling (V cyc )-to-tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle flux (V TCAn ) calculated from the steady-state [2-13 C]acetate enrichment data. From P10 to P30 increases in total neuronal (glutamate plus GABA) TCA cycle flux (3¾; 0.2460.05 versus 0.716 0.07 lmol per g per min, P < 0.0001) and total neurotransmitter cycling flux (3.1 to 5¾; 0.07 to 0.11 (6 0.03) versus 0.3460.03 lmol per g per min, P < 0.0001) were approximately proportional. Incremental changes in total cycling (DV cyc(tot) ) and neuronal TCA cycle flux (DV TCAn(tot) ) between P10 and P30 were 0.23 to 0.27 and 0.47 lmol per g per min, respectively, similar to the B1:2 relationship previously reported for adult cortex. For the individual neurons, increases in V TCAn and V cyc were similar in magnitude (glutamatergic neurons, 2.7¾ versus 2.8 to 4.6¾; GABAergic neurons, B5¾ versus B7¾), although GABAergic flux changes were larger. The findings show that glutamate and GABA neurons undergo large and approximately proportional increases in neurotransmitter cycling and oxidative energy metabolism during this major postnatal growth spurt.

Background Ketamine has recently gained significant attention owing to its psychotomimetic and more recently discovered rapid antidepressant-like properties. 1H-[13C]-NMR studies were employed to explore potential physiological processes underlying these unique effects. Methods [1-13C]glucose and [2-13C]acetate-NMR ex vivo studies were performed on the mPFC and hippocampus of rats acutely treated with 30mg/kg or 80mg/kg ketamine and compared to saline treated animals to determine the effects of ketamine on amino acid neurotransmitter cycling and glial metabolism. Results A sub-anesthetic, but not anesthetic, dose of ketamine significantly increased the percentage 13C-enrichments of Glutamate, GABA, and Glutamine in the mPFC of rats. Conclusion Sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine increase mPFC amino acid neurotransmitter cycling as well as neuronal and glial energy metabolism. These data add to previous reports suggesting increased mPFC levels of glutamate release, following the administration of sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine, are related to the drug’s acute effects on cognition, perception and mood.

As one of the most widespread drugs of abuse, nicotine has long been known to impact the brain, particularly with respect to addiction. However, the regional effects of nicotine on the concentrations and kinetics of amino acid neurotransmitters and some energetically related neurochemicals have been little studied. In this investigation, acute effects of nicotine were measured by 1 H-observed/ 13 C-edited nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy method in extracts obtained from nicotine-naïve, freely moving rats given 0.7 mg/kg nicotine or saline, with [1-13 C] glucose to track metabolism. Nicotine was observed to exert significant effects on the concentrations of N-acetylaspartate and GABA, particularly in the striatum. Nicotine decreased brain glucose oxidation, glutamate-glutamine neurotransmitter cycling, and GABA synthesis regionally, including in the parietal and occipital cortices and the striatum. The olfactory bulb showed kinetics that differed markedly from those observed in the rest of the brain. Independently of nicotine, the concentration of glutamate was found to be correlated significantly with levels of N-acetylaspartate and GABA, suggesting a potential interplay of energetics and excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission. In summary, the study revealed that the neurochemicals were most affected in the cortex and striatum of the rat brain after acute nicotine treatment.