The mood stabilizing properties of AF3581, a novel potent GSK-3β inhibitor.

•The novel GSK-3β inhibitor AF3581 has remarkable stabilizing properties on mood cycling, in animal models of mood disorders.•AF3581 prevented experimentally induced anhedonia in mice(down phase) and reduced the established aberrant hostile behavior towards intruder following long lasting isolation (up phase).•The efficacy of AF3581 in each animal model was always comparable to that of fully effective doses of reference drugs used.•In view of the promising pharmacological properties, AF3581 could be the prototype of a novel class of therapeutics for Bipolar Disorders.