PE 22-28 TREK-1 blocker, anyone following the preclinical antidepressant angle

Posted by student748 in Research & News - 1 points, 0 comments.

Stumbled on this peptide called PE 22-28 the other day, derived from spadin apparently, blocks a potassium channel called TREK-1. The claim is faster antidepressant effects than SSRIs in animal models plus neurogenesis and synaptogenesis. For what it is worth that mechanism sounds heaps more interesting to me than yet another serotonin reuptake approach, because it is targeting the channel rather than just flooding synapses with serotonin.

Checked the page here /peptides/pe-22-28 and it is straight up preclinical, no human dosing established, no human safety data. So yeah nah i am not about to go near it myself yet. But the neuroplasticity angle is what got my attention, especially for stroke recovery research. That is a pretty specific claim and i wonder how much of that is just rodent data being extrapolated.

My question is has anyone here been tracking TREK-1 research at all? Is this genuinely a new mechanism or just a repackaged version of what ketamine and other rapid-acting stuff already does through different pathways? Seems like every few months there is a new "fast antidepressant" candidate and most of them fizzle out. Keen to hear if anyone thinks this one is different or if it is just hype at this stage.

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.