Medical Network News on August 2 "Chinese scientists have made important progress in the development of new antidepressants. On the 28th, the journal Nature published an online research paper titled "Structural Basis of Ketamine Acting on Human NMDA Receptors". The research, completed by Shujia Zhu's research group in the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Luo Cheng's research group at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has important guiding significance for the development of new fast, efficient, and low-side-effect antidepressants.

According to Zhu Shujia, depression is not a simple psychological problem, but a pathological change in the brain. NMDA receptors are the most important excitatory ion channels in the brain and are the molecular switches for learning and memory. Depression is related to the dysfunction of NMDA receptors in the brain.

Ketamine is an important discovery in the antidepressant field in recent decades. It can act as a blocker of NMDA receptors in the brain, participate in the regulation of brain signaling pathways, and repair brain synaptic damage caused by chronic stress. After taking the medicine, it can improve the patient's depression, low self-evaluation and other negative symptoms within a few hours, weaken the patient's suicidal ideation, and have a therapeutic effect on refractory depression. However, ketamine can cause side effects such as dissociative hallucinations, which greatly limits its clinical application.

Since 2006, Zhu Shujia has been devoted to studying the mechanism of NMDA receptors. After entering the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she led the team to systematically explain how the activity of NMDA receptors is regulated by ligands and various small molecules, which greatly promoted people's scientific understanding of the working mechanism of NMDA receptors.

In the latest research, Zhu Shujia's team combined advanced cryo-electron microscopy technology to analyze the binding site of ketamine on the NMDA receptor and reveal its molecular mechanism of action. This series of basic scientific research breakthroughs not only provide a strong theoretical basis for the design of safer and more effective antidepressants, but also bring new opportunities for the subsequent realization of personalized precision medicine.