Prolonged administration of antidepressant drugs leads to increased binding of [3H]MPEP to mGlu5 receptors

Metabotropic glutamate 5 (mGlu5) receptors are functionally connected with NMDA receptors. The antidepressant activity of the NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine in both preclinical and clinical studies, along with the antidepressant-like activities of negative allosteric modulators (NAMs) of mGlu5, led us to investigate if prolonged administration of various antidepressant drugs or the mGlu5 NAM, MTEP, causes changes in mGlu5 receptor availability or protein expression or in expression of Homer proteins in the rat brain. Our results clearly show that prolonged treatment with antidepressants with various mechanisms of action (such as escitalopram, reboxetine, milnacipran, moclobemide and imipramine) or with MTEP led to significant increases in [3H]MPEP binding in homogenates of the hippocampus and/or cerebral cortex. Increases in mGlu5 expression were also observed, though they did not always parallel the increase in binding. The results indicate that adaptive up-regulation of mGlu5 receptors may be a common change induced by antidepressant drugs.