OXFORD, Miss. – A novel animal model of clinical depression
devised by a University of Mississippi research
psychologist shows promise for better diagnosis and
treatment of the syndrome and may result in a technology
patent for the university.
“There is certainly room for improvement across the board
in treating those who suffer from clinical depression.
Researchers are beginning to identify new areas in the
brain that we need to target for better drug therapy
treatment,” said the researcher Ken Sufka, UM professor of
psychology and pharmacology.
Sufka is also a research scientist at the National Center
for Natural Products Research, a unit of the UM School of
Pharmacy. He has been studying the connection between
anxiety and depression for several years, seeking ways to
better diagnose and treat clinical depression.
Besides developing a novel animal model of this clinical
syndrome, Sufka’s study suggests that anxiety may be a
prelude to a depressive disorder. His research includes
work with socially raised chicks, which were monitored in
observation chambers and the frequency of their
vocalizations automatically tallied.
Allan Kalueff, a research fellow at Finland’s University of
Tampere Medical School, said single-disorder models have
dominated experimental neuroscience for years, which is at
odds with the actual complexity of clinical phenotypes. To
alleviate this deficit, Kalueff said the field clearly
needs new approaches for mimicking the anxiety-depression
pathogenesis.
“A novel model from Dr. Sufka and his colleagues not only
addresses this need but also condenses the
anxiety-depression continuum into a short testing period,”
Kalueff said. “Representing an important methodological
advance, this model is highly congruent with newly
appreciated concepts of commonality between stress-related
brain disorders.”
Sufka explained that during the initial five to 10 minutes
of separation, the chicks chirp loudly, displaying anxiety
as they call out to their social companions. After 20 to 30
minutes, the chirping diminished by about half as the
chicks entered what appeared to be a state of depression.
“More importantly, we have shown the model to be extremely
sensitive to anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs,” Sufka
said.
“We were the first laboratory to describe the
anxiety-depression continuum in fowl chicks,” he said. “By
using chicks, it’s a cost-efficient alternative to the more
expensive rodent model; further, we can conduct two drug
screenings in one experiment.”
Walter Chambliss, UM director of technology management in
the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, said his
team is working to help secure future research
opportunities.
“The university has filed a patent to protect this novel
drug discovery method,” Chambliss said. “We are actively
seeking one or more licensing partners within the
pharmaceutical industry to commercialize the patent-pending
technology.”
In the December 2006 issue of the peer-reviewed journal
Behavioural Pharmacology, Sufka presents his novel
anxiety-depression continuum model and argues against the
conventional belief that anxiety and depression are
separate clinical syndromes.
In a follow-up article, soon to be published in the Journal
of Psychopharmacology, Sufka demonstrates the
pharmacological sensitivity of the chick model as a
potential drug screening test.
“The old school view is that anxiety and depression are
separate clinical syndromes and not at all related,” Sufka
said. “New research tells us this is wrong, and now we need
to reconceptualize our way of approaching and dealing with
these related mental health conditions.”
Sufka said he believes the new animal model can be used in
research to better understand the brain events that occur
during anxiety and depression, as well as to search for
changes in the brain system that help identify targets for
drug development.
Sufka’s research team consisted of former UM health and
exercise science professor Edmund Acevedo and four former
UM students, including three doctoral students and a Sally
McDonnell Barksdale Honors College student. Funding for the
work has come solely from on-campus sources.
“This work represents the most recent culmination of a
careful and programmatic line of research done over the
years by Dr. Sufka and his colleagues on distress
vocalizations in chicks,” said UM psychology chair Michael
Allen. “This careful progression of studies serves as an
exemplar for how good research can be done.”
The team is conducting validation studies, including the
testing of approximately 12 new drugs that show promise in
treating depression, Sufka said.
“Our next step is to examine changes in brain chemistry
that parallel the presentation of the anxiety and
depression phases,” Sufka said. “We hope these brain
changes will offer clues to new targets in the development
of novel antidepressant drugs.”
For more information, contact Sufka at 662-915-7728 or
pysufka@olemiss.edu. To learn more about the Department of
Psychology, visit
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/psychology/.