Serotonin Club Research Articles

A New Impact Factor and New Directions for ACS Chemical Neuroscience

Last year, we were very happy to report that ACS Chemical Neuroscience was fully indexed by PubMed and that our initial impact factor was 3.676 (310 cites and 69 published articles). ISI Web of Knowledge1 just released the statistics for 2012, and we were very happy to see the impact factor for ACS Chemical Neuroscience increase to 3.871 for 2012 (634 citations and 107 published articles), and garner a 5-year impact factor of 3.957! Citations are increasing, and 2013 is off to an amazing start in that regard (385 citations by June). Moreover, ACS Chemical Neuroscience is in the top 28% of the 251 neuroscience-oriented Journals indexed by ISI Web of Knowledge in that category.1 While we are pleased, we are not complacent. Anne, Arthur, and myself, as well as all the staff at ACS, want to see the Journal further increase in prominence, and we are actively working toward this goal. Thus far in 2013, Associate Editor Anne Andrews organized two amazing Special Issues of ACS Chemical Neuroscience: one celebrating 25 years of the Serotonin Club (Issue 1 of 2013), and the other focusing on monitoring molecules in neuroscience (Issue 5 of 2013). Both featured outstanding contributions by leaders in their respective fields, and represented the largest issues to date for ACS Chemical Neuroscience. A third special issue is in the works for later this year by managing editor Corey Hopkins on CNS animal models (contributions welcome!). We have also initiated a new reoccurring piece for ACS Chemical Neuroscience, entitled “Classics in Chemical Neuroscience”. These reviews will cover the background, history, chemical synthesis, DMPK profiles, pharmacology, adverse events, dosage information, and why these featured molecules are indeed classics in chemical neuroscience. When available, we will also compare and contrast medicinal chemistry to process chemistry routes. Molecules highlighted could be marketed CNS therapeutics, or tool compounds/probes that drove a particular area within CNS discovery. The first contribution publishes in this issue and focuses on clozapine, the most successful antipsychotic agent—40 years on! Future offerings will cover fluoxetine, aripiprazole, and donepezil. I encourage my colleagues active in CNS drug discovery to contribute reviews for “Classics in Chemical Neuroscience,” and I will be happy to e-mail you a Word template—just e-mail me (ude.tlibrednav@yelsdnil.giarc). Thanks to all of our authors, editors, and ACS staff for helping ACS Chemical Neuroscience to continue to grow and achieve new heights. We look forward to receiving your future submissions and expediently handling your manuscripts.

Serotonin and the Australian Connection: The Science and the People

This contribution to "Putting the pieces together: Proceedings from the International Society for Serotonin Research (aka Serotonin Club)" encapsulates a brief history of serotonin beginning with its discovery in 1946 by Maurice Rapport, Arda Green, and Irvine Page. The first 40 years of serotonin research culminated in the inaugural Serotonin Club meeting held on Heron Island, Australia, in 1987. In light of the silver anniversary of the Serotonin Club and its Australian beginnings, it is timely to highlight some of the contributions made to serotonin research by Australian scientists, which I shared with participants at the 2012 meeting of the Serotonin Club, in Montpellier, France as the honoree of the Maurice Rapport Lectureship.

What’s Old is New

As we welcome 2013, we find ourselves in that familiar place reflecting on the past, yet looking forward to the future. The January issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience provides a number of vantage points for contemplation in this regard. Contributions for this issue are from participants of the Serotonin Club Meeting held in Montpellier, France in July 2012, the 25th anniversary of this organization. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) is an important signaling molecule, which acts as a neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, and neurohormone. It serves many important functions in the central and peripheral nervous systems, as well as in the gastrointestinal, immune, cardiovascular, respiratory, and reproductive systems, and in bone and placenta.1,2,5,8,9 Although serotonin is highly pleiotropic, it is most well-known in its roles modulating mood and anxiety, and as a major target of widely prescribed serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants, for example, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Lexapro. In addition to the overwhelming response of the meeting participants, this issue marks a turning point for the Serotonin Club. Commemorating this anniversary, founders, councilors, and members recently voted to update the name of the Club to the “International Society for Serotonin Research,” reflecting its position as a highly influential scientific society. Much fondness remains for the Serotonin Club moniker and all it represents in terms of this group’s rich history and development. We are indebted to original Club members, Paul Vanoutte,11 Richard Green, and Charles Marsden,7 for their contributions to this issue, which include Viewpoints leveraging their wisdom and expertise. The issue also includes authoritative Viewpoints from Rodrigo Andrade and Samir Haj-Dahmane,3 Francesc Artigas,4 Lynette Daws and colleagues,6 and Dennis Murphy and co-workers.10 Each of these Viewpoints maps the history of serotonin research and charts the future. At the other end of the spectrum, the issue also features contributions from some of the Club’s youngest members. The Club remains committed to open membership and the development of young scientists, who are undoubtedly the future of serotonin research. One of the highlights of the Montpellier meeting was the “Pioneers and Prodigies” session, which featured invited talks from young travel award winners (Figure ​(Figure1)1) punctuated by commentary from venerable members. Figure 1 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Young Investigator Travel Awardees. Travel awardees attended the 2012 Meeting of the Serotonin Club, held at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Awardees comprised an international ... Papers published in this issue serve to illustrate the transition to the New Year and with it new ideas. While serotonin is one of the most investigated transmitters (>120 000 PubMed citations), research on serotonin continues to elucidate new information of importance to understanding this neurotransmitter system’s roles in basic physiology, disease processes, and treatments. Moreover, these findings have wide ranging implications for new concepts in receptor and transporter mechanisms, and avenues for therapeutic development. The serotonin system continues to serve as a model system to stimulate advances in knowledge of physiology and nervous system function. The year 2013 marks the fourth year of publication for ACS Chemical Neuroscience. The year 2012 was one of tremendous growth for the journal reflected by a doubling of submissions from 2011 and a steady rise in the quality of submissions. This special issue represents the largest issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience to date. We hope you will enjoy its panorama of Viewpoints, Letters, Articles, and Reviews. We at ACS Chemical Neuroscience wish you and yours the best for a happy and productive New Year. We would also like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to all of our authors and reviewers for their contributions to the journal and to our readers. We anticipate strong growth and impact for ACS Chemical Neuroscience in 2013. We look forward to continued influence in the worlds of chemistry, neuroscience, and their nexus.

Serotonin: Beyond the Brain

The Serotonin Club has played a crucial role in disseminating information on the roles played by this monoamine neurotransmitter, as well as in the process of pharmacological classification of serotonin membrane receptors. The Club's future mission should be to emphasize that serotonin (5-hydroxytyptamine) contributes to physiology and pathology beyond its function in the central nervous system.

How Do We Re-Engage the Pharmaceutical Industry in Research on Serotonin and Psychiatric Disorders?

The Serotonin Club celebrated its silver jubilee in 2012 with a meeting in Montpellier, France. During the past 25 years, great advances have been made in our understanding of the pharmacology of serotonin receptors and the roles of this neurotransmitter in psychiatric disorders. Most of these advances have involved effective collaborations between academic and industrial scientists. In recent years, however, this picture has changed, as many of the major pharmaceutical companies have pulled out of in-house psychopharmacology research into the major psychiatric disorders, despite an increasing worldwide burden of these disorders and a clear need for improved treatment, particularly in terms of improved efficacy. This Viewpoint investigates the reasons for the decline in industrial involvement and makes proposals as to how future academic research on serotonin function in the brain might reawaken industry interest in serotonin-based research. Briefly, academic preclinical scientists need to alter their experimental approach to research into the psychiatric disorders. This will require a move from a single-target approach to understanding the complex neuronal pathways the cause diverse functional and behavioral outputs, using novel technological advances and the development of animal models with enhanced translational values. It is hoped that such an approach will reveal novel drug targets and thus re-engage the pharmaceutical industry in research that will result in improved human health and social well-being.

Rethinking 5-HT1A Receptors: Emerging Modes of Inhibitory Feedback of Relevance to Emotion-Related Behavior

The complexities of the involvement of the serotonin transmitter system in numerous biological processes and psychiatric disorders is, to a substantial degree, attributable to the large number of serotonin receptor families and subtypes that have been identified and characterized for over four decades. Of these, the 5-HT(1A) receptor subtype, which was the first to be cloned and characterized, has received considerable attention based on its purported role in the etiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. 5-HT(1A) receptors function both at presynaptic (autoreceptor) and postsynaptic (heteroreceptor) sites. Recent research has implicated distinct roles for these two populations of receptors in mediating emotion-related behavior. New concepts as to how 5-HT(1A) receptors function to control serotonergic tone throughout life were highlights of the proceedings of the 2012 Serotonin Club Meeting in Montpellier, France. Here, we review recent findings and current perspectives on functional aspects of 5-HT(1A) auto- and heteroreceptors with particular regard to their involvement in altered anxiety and mood states.

John A Harvey

John A Harvey died on 25 June 2011, at the age of 80. He was born in New York City, but was raised in Siberia by his grandparents during the first decade of his life. John completed his BA degree in 1955, received his PhD degree from the prestigious doctoral program in Biopsychology in 1959, and began his long and celebrated career as a faculty member, all at the University of Chicago. He moved to the University of Iowa in 1968, and then to Drexel University College of Medicine in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology in 1988, where he served as Chair from 2006–2008. John's research career is highlighted by many seminal scientific contributions related to the biochemistry of the brain and the development of behavioral pharmacology. While at Chicago, he laid the foundation for decades of investigations in neuropharmacology by seeking to explain how neurotransmitters within the central nervous system governed behavior and behavioral responses to drugs. He launched his career by establishing that monoamine neurotransmitters were organized into fiber tracts that could be identified and selectively destroyed to determine their behavioral functions. Once the brain was damaged, he showed that impaired behavioral functions could be recovered by restoring depleted neurotransmitters or stimulating denervated receptors. Using a model of increased pain sensitivity associated with serotonin depletion, he showed that the precursor 5-HTP could replenish 5-HT to reverse that behavioral deficit. This remained a model for the treatment of neurological damage for years. He championed the transformative idea that medications used to treat psychiatric disorders produced their effects by modifying behavioral functions attributed to monoaminergic pathways. Subsequently, he established that the fenfluramine and amphetamines depleted brain 5-HT to produce neurotoxic effects, initiating investigations that continue in the substance-abuse field. He was among the first to recognize a relationship between brain lesions that destroyed dopaminergic fibers and deficits in feeding and other motivated behaviors. As a lifelong student of the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, John used Pavlovian conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response for the past 25 years to understand how drugs influence learning. John identified the underlying neural circuitry in the rabbit brainstem required for associative learning and then established how drugs specifically altered different components of Pavlovian conditioning. His research established unequivocally that hallucinogenic drugs enhanced learning by activating 5-HT2 receptors, and established key roles for these receptors in learning and cognition. At Drexel University, he established a NIDA program project that used Pavlovian conditioning to study the detrimental influence of prenatal exposure to cocaine on development. He also used Pavlovian conditioning to examine the effects of brain dysfunction related to autism, applying these techniques to a quest for translational biomarkers for this neurodevelopmental disorder. John published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters, and his research contributions were recognized by numerous awards. His career achievements in serotonin research were honored by the Irvine H Page Award at the 2006 international meeting of the Serotonin Club. As a member of many professional societies in pharmacology and neuroscience, he contributed a lifetime of active service to the scientific community. Elected a member of the ACNP in 1979 and a Fellow in 1991, he served actively on the Committee on the Use of Animals. He was especially proud of serving the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics as specific field editor and then editor-in-chief. He was a member of the editorial boards for more than 10 journals. John was widely known and respected for his humor, collegiality and for his intelligence, and was considered by many to be the paramount gentleman. He trained many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom developed their own productive and influential careers in biomedical research. John was the beloved husband to Dr Rhoda Harvey, and father to sons Michael (wife Pilar), Andrew (wife Sonya), and his eldest son, David, who predeceased him. He was also a loving grandfather to Oliver and Davia who brought him the greatest joy and pride. With his passing, many who are reading this commentary on John's life and contributions lost a cherished friend and dear colleague.

Serotonin Club Satellite Meeting Posters

Fundamental & Clinical PharmacologyVolume 22, Issue s2 p. 119-131 Free Access Serotonin Club Satellite MeetingPosters First published: 28 June 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-8206.2008.00601.xCitations: 4AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume22, Issues2Special Issue: Abstracts of the EPHAR 2008 Congress, Manchester, UK, 13-17 July 2008August 2008Pages 119-131 RelatedInformation

Alignment of receptor nomenclature with the human genome: classification of 5-HT 1B and 5-HT 1D receptor subtypes

The continuing rapid progress towards a complete database of structural information on the human genome creates a challenge of ensuring that current schemes for classifying and naming receptors and ion channels effectively integrate this information with functional data to provide unambiguous principles for classification. In this article, Paul Hartig and colleagues review the recent deliberations of the Serotonin Club Nomenclature Committee∗ and outline a number of its recommendations aimed at encouraging consistency in current and future receptor nomenclature. Based on these principles, the present classification of 5-HT 1B and 5-HT 1D receptors is reconsidered, and a revised nomenclature for 5-HT 1B, 5-HT 1Dα and 5-HT, 1Dβ receptor subtypes is suggested.

Modern 5-HT receptor classification and 5-HT based drugs

Based on operational (agonist and antagonist rank order), transductional (second messenger coupling) and structural (gene and amino acid sequence) criteria, the Nomenclature Committee of the Serotonin Club has discerned four distinct 5-HT receptor types, besides two less well characterised categories including some recombinant and the so-called ‘orphan’ receptors. The responses mediated via many 5-HT receptors are now well understood and this, in turn, has resulted in the development and use of serotonergic drugs in the therapy of several diseases, including anxiety and migraine, and in the prevention of vomiting caused by anticancer agents. Many other therapeutic avenues are being explored presently.

A proposed new nomenclature for 5-HT receptors

The revised 5-HT receptor nomenclature published here was established by the Serotonin Club Receptor Nomenclature Committee and approved by IUPHAR. The members of the Serotonin Club Receptor Nomenclature Committee are: P. B. Bradley, T. A. Branchek, D. E. Clarke, M. L. Cohen, J. R. Fozard, M. Gothert, J. P. Green, P. R. Hartig, D. Hoyer, P. P. A. Humphrey J. E. Leysen, G. R. Martin, D. N. Middlemiss, E. J. Mylecharane, S. J. Peroutka and P. R. Saxena.

Recent advances in serotonin research II: Polymerase chain reaction to positron emission tomography

This issue contains the method-oriented papers from an interdisciplinary conference held at the Serotonin Club meeting in New Orleans. The techniques are described in detail with attention given to making the ‘tricks-of-the-trade’ known to the reader. This short review compares these methods to those presented at the first ‘Advances in Serotonin Research’ meeting in Los Angeles in 1981. The emerging dominance of molecular biology and pharmacology in serotonin research is reflected by this collection of papers. The strong interdisciplinary nature of these new methods, their greater sensitivity and selectivity and their application to human material makes the distance between polymerase chain reaction and positron emission tomography appear trivial.