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New Insight On How Lithium Works

BioMedNet News (warning: requires registration), in the News Archives July 31, 2003, has a summary of exciting new British research throwing fresh light on how mood stabilizers used in treatment of bipolar affective disorder affects cellular pathways. (Article is entitled: “Slime Mould Gets Moody” by Laura Spinney).

Although the organism in the spotlight is Dictyostelium discoideum, the slime mold, the pathways being studied are present in both mammals and slime mold. Adrian Harwood and his lab at the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology of the University College London have been focusing on the inositide signaling pathway and the Wnt-signaling pathway in slime mold.

The most important implication of this work is stated here:
    "…Their latest findings add more detail to the picture, indicating that lithium and valproic acid exert their effects at different stages of the inositide-signaling pathway.

    "Dictyostelium is a wonderful system in which to study this pathway because you can manipulate it with mutants and study each step, which is impossible in humans," said neurogeneticist James Kennedy of the University of Toronto, who describes the findings as "impressive".

    He added: "This model may help in designing and testing new medications [for bipolar disorder]."..."

There's still much more work to be done. Apparently, it is unknown exactly how changes in these pathways affect bipolar disorder. Note: I'm curious as to why I haven’t seen this yet in mainstream news releases.

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