Eva Ducourneau et al. in Molecular Psychiatry

(A Study from Desmedt’s team in collaboration with PV Piazza & Lundbeck Lab.)

Comment

The paper shows (in collaboration with Lundbeck Laboratory) that acute administration of brexpiprazole, a new antipsychotic drug with pro-cognitive effects in rodents, (0.3 mg/kg) 7 days’ post-trauma persistently prevents the expression of PTSD-like memory in mice, while promoting normal fear memory. Specifically, It specifically blocks the emotional hypermnesia of PTSD while enhancing (with superior efficacy when compared to diazepam, prazosin and escitalopram) memory for the traumatic context, which is impaired in PTSD. Moreover, this treatment also normalizes most of the alterations in the hippocampal-amygdalar network activation associated with PTSD-like memory. These preclinical data indicate that brexpiprazole could represent a new pharmacological treatment of PTSD promoting the normalization of traumatic memory.

Reference

Ducourneau E.G., Guette C., Perrot D., Mondesir M., Mombereau C., Arnt J. Desmedt* A. and Piazza* P.V. Brexpiprazole blocks Posttraumatic stress disorder-like memory while promoting normal fear memory. Molecular Psychiatry. 2020 Aug 19.
*co-last authorship.

doi: 10.1038/s41380-020-0852-z

First author

Eva Ducourneau
Team Marighetto/Desmedt
(“Pathophysiology of declarative memory”)

Contact

Aline Desmedt
Team Marighetto/Desmedt
(“Pathophysiology of declarative memory”)