ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280290
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ANTI-DEPRESSANT TARGET PROTEIN IN BRAIN ISOLATED

Scientists have isolated a protein that anti-depressants latch onto in the brain, an advance that might eventually lead to better treatments for depression.

Scientists cloned the protein and showed that its activity was blocked by several anti-depressants.

The protein is called a norepinephrine transporter, or a noradrenaline transporter.

Certain brain cells use norepinephrine to communicate, by releasing bursts of it that the receiving brain cell absorbs. The job of the transporter is to terminate that signal.

Some anti-depressants block that process by binding to the transporter, which lets the signal stay "on" longer. - Associated Press 


 by CNB