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Peer-reviewed articleOpen access

Rapid and long-lasting antidepressant-like effects of the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide receptor antagonist PA-915 in chronic stress mouse models.

Shintani YiD, Hayata-Takano AiD, Takasaki I, Kurihara TiD, Miyata A, Yamano Y, Ikuta M, Takeshita R, Murata K, Oguri T, Asaka C, Nunomura K, Lin B, Nakagawa S, Okada T, Toyooka N, Takumi TiD, Ago YiD, Takuma K, Hashimoto HiD

Molecular psychiatrySep 4, 2025License: open accessJapan2 citationsDOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03209-4

Abstract

Stress-related disorders, such as depression and anxiety, have been one of the most important medical issues. Accumulating evidence suggests that the activation of the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide and its receptor PAC1 are involved in the stress axis and the development of stress-related disorders. We recently developed PA-915, a small-molecule, non-peptide, high-affinity PAC1 antagonist, and demonstrated that it significantly suppresses anxiety-like behavior in acute stress-induced mice. In this study, we aimed to investigate the behavioral effects of PA-915 in chronic stress-induced mouse models of depression, which included repeated social defeat stress, repeated corticosterone administration, and social isolation rearing. PA-915 ameliorated the increased immobility time in the forced swim test in these stress-induced mice. In repeated social defeat stress mice, PA-915 improved anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors and cognitive dysfunction, as assessed by the light-dark, open field, elevated plus maze, sucrose preference, forced swim, Y-maze, and novel object recognition tests. In addition, we evaluated the usefulness of PA-915 as an antidepressant and compared it with ketamine and fluoxetine. In the sucrose preference test, an antidepressant-like effect was observed for 8 weeks in mice that received a single dose of PA-915, which was a similar effect observed with ketamine. In non-stressed control mice, PA-915 did not induce behavioral abnormalities, such as hyperlocomotion, cognitive dysfunction, or dependency. The present results show that PA-915 improves anxiety-like behaviors and cognitive impairment and exerts rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects in chronic stress-induced mouse models of anxiety and depression, proposing a promising treatment option for stress-related disorders.

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KetamineDepressionAnxiety

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