Scientists from Russia have found the possibility of regulating depression at the cellular level

Brief retelling from RIA II

Scientists at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have identified the possibility of regulating depressive-like behavior at the level of brain cells using the approaches of the 2026 Nobel laureates.

Studies using optogenetics have shown that stimulating certain neurons in the hippocampus increases depressive-like behavior.

Siberian scientists also conducted experiments to suppress serotonin-secreting midbrain cells using optogenetics methods.

NOVOSIBIRSK, October 7 – RIA Novosti. Scientists from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, using the approaches of the 2026 Nobel laureates, were able to identify the possibility of regulating depressive-like behavior at the level of brain cells, Tatyana Kalinina, head of the laboratory of functional neurogenomics at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, head of the Department of Physiology at NSU, told RIA Novosti.

The Nobel Committee in Stockholm announced on October 5 that the 2026 Prize in Medicine and Physiology will go to scientists Karl Deisseroth, Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann for their discoveries in the field of light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.

Kalinina said that since 2014, the institute, under the leadership of Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Dygalo, began research using optogenetics to assess the effect on depressive-like behavior of certain neurons of the hippocampus - a brain structure responsible for many of its functions, including psycho-emotional reactions.

"We tried to show that certain cells in this hippocampus are involved in depressive-like behavior in a certain way. Optogenetic stimulation of certain neurons in the hippocampus has been shown to increase depressive-like behavior," the neuroscientist said.

Neuronal activation tests were carried out through a complex experiment on laboratory rats. Animals in the test situation were irradiated with light through an optical fiber. As a result, the depressive and anxious state of the rats intensified.

In addition, Siberian scientists, using optogenetics, conducted experiments to suppress midbrain cells that secrete the “pleasure hormone” serotonin. That is, they applied optogenetics methods to different brain structures.