Cited by 224Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchCholinesterase and Neurodegenerative Diseases

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 43 of the 43 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 15 of the 49 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

An Antidepressant Decreases CSF Aβ Production in Healthy Individuals and in Transgenic AD Mice

Open access

Abstract

The antidepressant drug citalopram decreased CSF amyloid-β in healthy humans, and in an aged transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, it decreased ISF amyloid-β in a dose-dependent manner.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

In aged APP/PS1 mice, citalopram dose-dependently lowered brain interstitial fluid Aβ, blocked growth of existing plaques, and reduced new plaque appearance by 78%. In healthy human volunteers, acute citalopram reduced CSF Aβ production by 37% and total CSF Aβ concentrations by 38% without changing clearance.

Key findings

  • In 12-month-old plaque-bearing APP/PS1 mice, citalopram reduced ISF Aβ at 5 mg/kg (12.4%) and 10 mg/kg (24.5%) versus baseline; 20 mg/kg gave no additional effect (27.5% reduction), while 2.5 mg/kg was not significant.
  • Chronic citalopram (10 mg/kg daily for 28 days) prevented plaque growth: vehicle plaques grew 111.4 μm² on average, whereas citalopram plaques did not grow (−22.4 μm², p=0.26); new plaques were reduced from 10 (3.9) to 2.2 (1.1), p=0.01, a 78% reduction.
  • In healthy human volunteers, citalopram lowered mean CSF Aβ production rate to 1.33 pg/hr (0.15) versus 2.11 pg/hr (0.20) for placebo, a 37% reduction (p=0.005), and lowered average CSF Aβ concentration by 38% over 37 hours (p=0.001).
  • Aβ clearance rate was unchanged (−0.61 versus −0.96 per hour; p=0.115), and tracer/tracee ratio did not differ significantly between groups.

Methods

  • Mouse studies used APP/PS1+/− mice: in vivo hippocampal microdialysis to measure ISF Aβ after acute citalopram doses (2.5, 5, 10, 20 mg/kg) and longitudinal multiphoton microscopy with thinned-skull cranial windows to track individual plaque growth over 28 days of citalopram (10 mg/kg) or vehicle.
  • Human study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in healthy volunteers receiving 60 mg citalopram in divided oral doses; CSF and blood were sampled hourly during stable-isotope labeling kinetics (SILK) with 13C6-leucine, and labeled/unlabeled Aβ was measured by mass spectrometry.
  • Analyses used repeated-measures ANOVA with treatment, time, and treatment-by-time effects, mixed models, post-hoc approximate t-tests, and non-proportional odds cumulative logit models for plaque outcomes.

Limitations

  • The paper states that human data were not collected during the first 8 hours after drug/placebo administration, so the timing of when CSF concentration differences arose is unknown.
  • The paper states that human studies were conducted in young individuals presumably before plaque formation, so it is unknown whether the same effect occurs in older individuals with plaque deposition.
  • The paper notes that production and clearance were modeled as independent phenomena even though they occur simultaneously; evident additional constraints include the small human sample (23 analyzed), acute dosing rather than long-term prevention outcomes, and adverse events including post-lumbar puncture headaches and nausea/vomiting.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1126/scitranslmed.3008169

Cites

43 of 43 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

24 Own result · 13 Own method · 13 Own interpretation · 10 Not checked yet · 8 No full text of the sources · 5 Supported · 3 Supported so far · 1 Partly supported · 1 Mixed support · 1 Not supported · 1 No basis given · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 19 references — free account

Show all 52 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 21
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 11
28 of 28
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    To date, there have not been drugs with both an established safety profile and a mechanism-based rationale that have been tested in primary or secondary prevention trials of AD.

    “To date, there have not been drugs with both an established safety profile and a mechanism-based rationale that have been tested in primary or secondary prevention trials of AD.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Early in disease pathogenesis, soluble Aβ monomers aggregate into soluble Aβ oligomers and insoluble Aβ plaques, both of which can alter synaptic transmission and be toxic to neurons under certain conditions.

    “Early in disease pathogenesis, soluble Aβ monomers aggregate into soluble Aβ oligomers and insoluble Aβ plaques, both of which can alter synaptic transmission and be toxic to neurons under certain conditions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Individuals with autosomal dominant AD or Down’s syndrome have only 20–50% higher CSF Aβ42 concentrations than normal but manifest disease 20–30 years before AD patients with the sporadic form of the disease.

    “Individuals with autosomal dominant AD or Down’s syndrome have only 20–50% higher CSF Aβ42 concentrations than normal but manifest disease 20–30 years before AD patients with the sporadic form of the disease.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There have been many clinical trials using Aβ lowering drugs in AD and MCI that were unsuccessful.

    “A caveat is that there have been many clinical trials using Aβ lowering drugs in AD and MCI that were unsuccessful.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Citalopram has a long half-life.

    “Citalopram has a long half-life, meaning there was likely a sustained effect on Aβ throughout CSF sampling despite the single administration at the beginning of the study.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The model presumes that production and clearance rates are independent phenomena in the analysis.

    “Admittedly, this model is limited by presuming that production and clearance rates are independent phenomena in the analysis, while practically production and clearance occur simultaneously.”
6 of 6

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

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Metadata

Authors
Sheline, Y. I., West, T., Yarasheski, K., Swarm, R., Jasielec, M. S., Fisher, J. R., Ficker, W. D., Yan, P., Xiong, C., Frederiksen, C., Grzelak, M. V., Chott, R., Bateman, R. J., Morris, J. C., Mintun, M. A., Lee, J.-M., & Cirrito, J. R.
Affiliations
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • C2N Diagnostics (United States) (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
Sheline, Yvette I.
Venue
Science Translational Medicine
Published
2014-05-14
Volume
6
Issue
236
Pages
236re4-236re4
ISSN
  • 1946-6234 (ISSN-L)
  • 1946-6242
OpenAlex
W2163894029
Cited by
223
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 12
FWCI
8.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science Translational Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5p60dk020579-35)
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG042513, R01AG041502, R21AG039690)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (K24MH079510)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R24GM136766, P41GM103422)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P60-DK-020579, P30DK056341, P30DK020579)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R21NS082529, R01NS067905)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology (medical) › Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Keywords
citalopram, serotonin signaling, amyloid-beta, Alzheimer's disease, cerebrospinal fluid, amyloid plaques, APP/PS1 mice, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, amyloid-beta production, drug-target engagement, Alzheimer's disease prevention
MeSH terms
Adult, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Antidepressive Agents, Brain, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Double-Blind Method, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Humans, Male, Mice, Inbred C3H, Mice, Transgenic, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Serotonin, Citalopram, Signal Transduction, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, Microdialysis, Mice, Young Adult, Plaque, Amyloid

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