Hello, I have a question related to the metabolism of Serotonin. I am studying its metabolism in case of stress and depression and I could not find out the relationship between serotonin and 5HIAA in this particular case. MAO-A (the enzyme which metabolizes the serotonin hormone) inhibition is usually the mechanism of a lot of anti deprdepressantgs, but I have found several articles where the concentration of 5HIAA was lowered in case of depression and also suggestive of a lower concentration of Serotonin itself. But it doesn't justify the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs. so I am confused now and want an answer for the exact relation of Serotonin and 5HIAA.
If serotonin is metabolized in 5HIAA, then 5HIAA concentration increases and serotonin descreases, so as serotoni conc. decreases, depression will increase. Is it right or no?
Hi,
The referenced article given below can clarify your doubt:
Jayamohananan H, Manoj Kumar MK, T P A. 5-HIAA as a Potential Biological Marker for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders. Adv Pharm Bull. 2019 Aug;9(3):374-381. doi: 10.15171/apb.2019.044. Epub 2019 Aug 1. PMID: 31592064; PMCID: PMC6773935.
5-Hydroxytryptamine (5HT) or Serotonin is a chemical neurotransmitter which, in general, we can intuit that it is diminished in depressive disorders. This neurotransmitter accumulates or appears more in the anatomical area known as the "raphe nuclei". Most screening studies for new antidepressant drugs use subjecting experimental animals to conflict situations and then measuring 5HT levels. Extrapolation of results has to be careful, but in principle plasma levels in autopsies of people who committed suicide by suicide were quite LOW, so it is assumed that decreased levels of this transmitter are correlated with clinical major depression.
But things are not that simple.
There was a Swedish scientist called Arvid Carlsson, from Gothenburg who was studying another chemical neurotransmitter, Dopamine, for more than 40 years and was very cautious about extrapolating or drawing binary results of Yes or No. He won the Nobel P@rize for his humility.
Notably, serotonin but not only restricted to it, but all the neurotransmitters have also played different roles in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, including depression. These roles are sometimes present in quantitative ways, sometimes in qualitative methods. Therefore, it is hard to draw a definite conclusion when defining the effects of neurotransmitter interactions in the central nervous system in terms of implicating the neurochemical basis of psychiatric disorders. There is a clear need to demonstrate those interactions through neuroscience studies.
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