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A chemical discovered in the Bruce Hammock laboratory at the University of California, Davis, may be a new, innovative tool to control depression, a severe and chronic psychiatric disease that affects 350 million persons worldwide. The research, published March 14 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involves studies of an inhibitor of soluble epoxide hydrolase in rodents. Soluble epoxide hydrolase, or sEH, is emerging as a therapeutic target that acts on a number of inflammatory or inflammation-linked diseases. “The research in animal models of depression suggests that sEH plays a key role in modulating inflammation, which is involved in depression,” said Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology with a joint appointment at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Inhibitors of sEH protect natural lipids in the brain that reduce inflammation and neuropathic pain. Thus, these inhibitors could be potential therapeutic drugs for depression.” “Gene deficiency and pharmacological inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase confers resilience to repeated social defeat stress” by Qian Ren, Min Ma, Tamaki Ishima, Christophe Morisseau, Jun Yang, Karen M. Wagner, Ji-chun Zhang, Chun Yang, Wei Yao, Chao Dong, Mei Han, Bruce D. Hammock, and Kenji Hashimoto in PNAS. Published online March 14 2016 doi:10.1073/pnas.1601532113
