Gene therapy for depression

Mouse experiments deliver genetic material to brain

Researchers have pinpointed a region of the brain where scarcity of a key protein may contribute to depression. The new findings, appearing October 20 in Science Translational Medicine, may pave the way to treating some cases of depression with gene therapy.

Delivering a gene encoding the protein p11 to the human nucleus accumbens (red) using gene therapy might be a new way to treat depression.