Snails test new anti-depressant drugs

Scientists say tests on snail hearts could hold the key to developing new anti-depressant drugs.

A team from La Trobe University in Australia found that when a snail finds a good spot for food, hormones like serotonin begin circulating and hearts beating.

Serotonin is used by anti-depressant manufacturers to quieten the human, brain but the boffins say human tissue to test on is hard to come by.

They will now study how a snail heart copes so well with the onslaught of serotonin as it works in much the same way as humans.

Dr Gibson has not said if drugs would also be designed to produce happier snails, but a couple of leafs seem to do the trick anyway.