REVIEW article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neuropharmacology
This article is part of the Research TopicNovel Pharmacological Interventions in Emotional and Neuropsychiatric DisordersView all 8 articles
Advancing Depression Treatment: The Role of Sigma Receptor Ligands
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Anesthesiology, Air Force Hospital of Western Theater Command, PLA, Chengdu, China
- 2Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology (FMMU), Ministry of Education, Xi'an, China
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Depression, one of the most prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders, continues to pose escalating global health challenges. Despite the discovery of numerous antidepressants, their clinical applications are limited, and there is still an urgent need to identify more effective antidepressant drugs and their molecular targets. In recent years, sigma receptors have garnered considerable interest among depression researchers because of their diverse biological functions and significant roles in the central nervous system. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the potential roles of sigma receptors and their ligands in the pathogenesis of depression and the course of antidepressant treatment, with the aim of offering insights into further research and potential therapeutic development.
Keywords: Sigma receptor, ligands, Depression, NMDA, LTP
Received: 25 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Chen, Lu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fei Fei Xu, xufeifei0204@163.com
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