Abstract

A recent paper in the Journal of Neuroscience has shown that inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACs) — enzymes that affect the acetylation status of histones and regulate the remodelling of chromatin — have antidepressant actions. Although currently used antidepressants rapidly modulate monoaminergic systems in the brain, the emergence of their mood-elevating effects requires several weeks of administration, which suggests that altered gene expression is involved in antidepressant action.