Expression cloning of a serotonin transporter: a new way to study antidepressant drugs

Tricyclic antidepressants revolutionized the treatment of depression. These results and the monoamine-depleting effect of reserpine have contributed to the proposal that an imbalance in monoamines is a causal factor in depression. Most antidepressants act to concentrate monoamines in the synapse either by blocking metabolism via monoamine oxidase or by inhibiting reuptake by plasma membrane transporters. We have used a novel cDNA expression cloning strategy to isolate cDNAs for the antidepressant-sensitive serotonin transporter and for a reserpine-sensitive vesicular monoamine transporter which is critical for packaging serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine and histamine into synaptic vesicles and secretory granules. In addition, we have isolated a dopamine transporter. The three papers summarized here describe the molecular characteristics of three proteins critical for monoamine neurotransmission and which are targets for antidepressant and psychostimulant drugs. The cloning of the serotonin and dopamine transporters and of the CNS vesicular transporter provide new tools to examine how post-translational and transcriptional regulation of these transporters effect uptake, storage and release of monoamines in normal and disease states. In addition to providing substrates for further drug discovery, isolation of human homologues should be useful for assessing the possible genetic bases of depression.