For decades, scientists have built psychiatric drugs around neurons—the brain cells that send electrical and chemical signals. But even as that understanding has deepened, treatments for mental health conditions remain frustratingly limited for the nearly one in seven people worldwide living with mental health disorders.
“The neurology and psychiatry fields have really not had a fantastic track record of treating various serious psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions,” Anna Orr, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medicine, says, “even though there’s a pretty sophisticated understanding of neuronal function.”
Now, scientists are turning to an overlooked star-shaped brain cell, the astrocyte, to develop more effective therapies. Once considered support cells, astrocytes are increasingly recognized for their role in shaping learning, memory, and behavior. Early findings suggest they could offer new, more precise targets for treating conditions like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
How astrocytes affect brain activity and behavior
Astrocytes wrap around synapses, the junctions where neurons meet to exchange information, influencing how signals are sent and received. Although they account for as many as half of the cells in some brain regions, until recently, they were more difficult to study than neurons.
“We’ve had the tools for a long time to measure neural activity,” says Lindsay Halliday, a University of Arizona behavioral neuroscientist. Only in the past two decades have advances in molecular biology and genetics made it possible to track what astrocytes are doing in real time.
