TY - JOUR
T1 - Ginsenoside Rb3 exerts antidepressant-like effects in several animal models
AU - Cui, Jihong
AU - Jiang, Lingxi
AU - Xiang, Hui
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from the Guangdong Science-Tech Program (2001331004202516 and 2007B031400001), Cooperation of Industry, Education and Academy between Gongdong Province Government and the Chinese Government Education Department (2008B090500028), National Talented Person Foundation of China (J0730638), Science Foundation of Life Sciences School, and Opening Laboratory Fund, Sun Yat-Sen University.
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - Total ginsenosides have been shown to have therapeutic actions as antidepressants. We report a major active ingredient of total ginsenosides, the ginsenoside Rb3 (Rb3), which may have antidepressant-like effects. Using the forced swim test, tail suspension test, and learned helplessness procedure, we found that Rb3 had significant anti-immobility effects in mice in the forced swim and tail suspension tests and reduced the number of escape failures in the learned helplessness procedure. In a reserpine-induced syndrome model, Rb3 attenuated hypothermia, palpebral ptosis, and akinesia. In the chronic mild stress model, chronic Rb3 administration reversed the decrease in locomotor activity, novelty-suppressed feeding, and sucrose preference. Furthermore, neurochemical tests were performed to support our hypothesis that biochemical variations (i.e. brain-derived neurotrophic factor and the monoamine neurotransmitters 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, and norepinephrine) are involved in Rb3's antidepressant-like effects. Finally, we found, using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, that the action potential transmission in neurons within the somatosensory cortex was excited by Rb3 perfusion and blocked with Panax notoginseng total saponins extracted from leaves. This study provides evidence for the mechanism of action of the antidepressant-like effects of Rb3.
AB - Total ginsenosides have been shown to have therapeutic actions as antidepressants. We report a major active ingredient of total ginsenosides, the ginsenoside Rb3 (Rb3), which may have antidepressant-like effects. Using the forced swim test, tail suspension test, and learned helplessness procedure, we found that Rb3 had significant anti-immobility effects in mice in the forced swim and tail suspension tests and reduced the number of escape failures in the learned helplessness procedure. In a reserpine-induced syndrome model, Rb3 attenuated hypothermia, palpebral ptosis, and akinesia. In the chronic mild stress model, chronic Rb3 administration reversed the decrease in locomotor activity, novelty-suppressed feeding, and sucrose preference. Furthermore, neurochemical tests were performed to support our hypothesis that biochemical variations (i.e. brain-derived neurotrophic factor and the monoamine neurotransmitters 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, and norepinephrine) are involved in Rb3's antidepressant-like effects. Finally, we found, using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, that the action potential transmission in neurons within the somatosensory cortex was excited by Rb3 perfusion and blocked with Panax notoginseng total saponins extracted from leaves. This study provides evidence for the mechanism of action of the antidepressant-like effects of Rb3.
KW - Animal models
KW - chronic mild stress
KW - depression
KW - ginsenoside Rb3
KW - neurotransmitters
KW - psychopharmacology
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U2 - 10.1177/0269881111415735
DO - 10.1177/0269881111415735
M3 - Article
C2 - 21948936
AN - SCOPUS:84861807661
SN - 0269-8811
VL - 26
SP - 697
EP - 713
JO - Journal of Psychopharmacology
JF - Journal of Psychopharmacology
IS - 5
ER -