Removal of Molecule Helps Mice to Mingle

Depressed loner mice get more sociable when researchers delete a memory molecule from their brains, a finding that might help treat human ills like social phobia and post-traumatic stress, scientists said Thursday.

This molecular therapy worked about as well as giving mice the antidepressants Prozac or Tofranil, the researchers reported in the current issue of the journal Science.

They targeted a molecule in a section of the brain known to be related to sensations of pleasure and danger, said Olivier Berton of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, one of the report’s authors. Deleting the molecule meant that the mice never got depressed and fearful, even though conditions were set up that normally would make them run away and hide.