HSP105 prevents depression-like behavior by increasing hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in mice.

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are stress-induced chaperones that are involved in neurological disease. Although increasingly implicated in behavioral disorders, the mechanisms of HSP action, and the relevant functional pathways, are still unclear. We examined whether oral administration of geranylgeranylacetone (GGA), a known HSP inducer, produced an antidepressant effect in a social defeat stress model of depression in mice.