Cornell Chronicle Reports:
Quick Summary
New research on serotonin could ultimately lead to new therapeutics for anxiety and depression.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that mediates behaviors such as feeding, sleep, mood and cognition. Drugs that alter serotonin levels are the main weapon for treating psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
Key Points
- Researchers thought that serotonin was made by one specific molecular pathway and then quickly degraded.
- Research discovered a second, parallel biosynthetic pathway that accounts for about half of the total serotonin production.
- Additional research is needed to investigate how these manufacturing pathways and metabolites impact human behaviors.
The article states:
Most people in the field thought serotonin is made and then quickly broken down,” Schroeder said, “but we found that, instead, it is used as a building block for other compounds that are responsible for some of serotonin’s activity. So we decided to start at the beginning and see how serotonin is made, and then how it is converted into these new molecules.