In a recent study presented at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics annual meeting, researchers found that the antidepression drug duloxetine could be beneficial to patients with both depression and heart disease.
The study is from the Texas A&M University. One author is Patricia A. Lozano.
Globally, more than 300 million people have depression, which comes with an increased risk of developing heart disease.
When a blood vessel is injured, the platelets in our blood respond by forming clots that stop blood bleeding.
If this activation goes into overdrive, it can lead to thrombosis, a condition where blood clots form inside blood vessels and can dislodge to lead to a heart attack or stroke.
In the study, researchers showed that duloxetine inhibited platelet function and protected against clot formation.
The finding suggests that duloxetine, which has already been approved by the FDA for depression, has antithrombotic activity.
The researchers focused on duloxetine because it is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, which means it acts on the protein that controls levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
In addition to playing a role in depression, serotonin is known to help control platelet activity.
Using human blood, the researchers performed a series of experiments to examine duloxetine’s effects on platelets in human blood.
They found that the antidepressant inhibited platelet aggregation in a dose-dependent manner, implying that the drug could prevent clot formation.
Using a mouse model of thrombosis, the researchers also found that duloxetine slowed down the time it took for platelets to aggregate into a clot large enough to block an artery.
The team says understanding the antiplatelet effects of duloxetine is critical due to the prevalence of patients with depression and heart disease.
Having one drug that can treat both conditions could help avoid drug interactions. Duloxetine may also serve as a blueprint for developing a novel class of antithrombotic agents.
If you care about depression, please read studies about this sleep apnea therapy may help treat depression and findings of this common bowel disease linked to depression.
For more information about depression and your health, please see recent studies about depression symptoms could be signs for cognitive decline in some people and results showing that ketamine can treat depression in a unique way.
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