Moreover, it is noteworthy that blunted Erk activation has been observed both in depressed patients and in relevant animal models of depression (Dwivedi et al., 2001; Feng et al., 2003; Gourley et al., 2008; Yuan et al., 2010) whereas inhibition of kinases such as MEK or Erk produced despair-like behaviors and prevented the antidepressant-like effects of SSRIs in rodents (Shirayama et al., 2002; Duman et al., 2007). This evidence concerns the gene MAP2K7 and major depressive disorder.