Short- and long-term efficacy of electroconvulsive stimulation in animal models of depression: The essential role of neuronal survival

Abstract

Altogether, these results reveal that increased synaptic connectivity and extended neuronal survival are key to the short and long-term efficacy of ECS.

Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy on Depression and Its Potential Mechanism

“…Recently, extensive studies have suggested that ECT is highly effective in ameliorating depression symptoms with fewer unwanted effects (Liang et al, 2017(Liang et al, , 2018Karayagmurlu et al, 2019). Similar findings were also reported in animal studies using electroconvulsive seizures (ECS, an animal model for ECT) (Jonckheere et al, 2018;Alemu et al, 2019). Therefore, this review was aimed to interpret recent clinical and preclinical ECT studies and its potential mechanism on depression to provide clinicians and patients with greater appreciation of this approach to defeat depression.…”

“…Additionally, neuroplasticity triggered or enhanced by ECS administration significantly increased the number of mitochondria, synapses, and length of microvessels in depressed rats regardless of response (Chen et al, 2018). Employed with MAP6 KO mouse, a genetic model of depression, Jonckheere et al (2018) demonstrated that synaptogenesis and neurogenesis compensated for behavioral deficits. ECS enhances the proliferation of adult hippocampal neuronal progenitors, and continuation ECS led to persistent behavioral and biological improvements.…”

“…ECS is an experimental animal model of ECT (Jonckheere et al, 2018). ECS successfully improved depression-or stressassociated performance by preventing depression-and stressinduced damage (Kyeremanteng et al, 2014;Luo et al, 2015;Schloesser et al, 2015;Jonckheere et al, 2018;Alemu et al, 2019).…”

“…ECS is an experimental animal model of ECT (Jonckheere et al, 2018). ECS successfully improved depression-or stressassociated performance by preventing depression-and stressinduced damage (Kyeremanteng et al, 2014;Luo et al, 2015;Schloesser et al, 2015;Jonckheere et al, 2018;Alemu et al, 2019). Notwithstanding the heterogeneity of clinical ECT research, major animal studies supported that ECS can induce neurogenesis, and the neuron or glial cell loss or malfunction was compensated by neurogenesis (Kaastrup Muller et al, 2015;Schloesser et al, 2015;Jonckheere et al, 2018).…”

“…On the other hand, BDNF is a neurotrophin related to canonical nerve growth that plays a critical role in neurogenesis and neuronal plasticity. The expression of BDNF was significantly elevated in animal models of depression-like behavior after undergoing ECS (Zhang et al, 2016;Chen et al, 2018;Jonckheere et al, 2018). The effect of confronting depression needed to incorporate studies of mitochondria and synapses (Chen et al, 2018).…”