Department of Pharmacology of Chinese Materia Medica, China Pharmaceutical University, 639, Longmian Road, Nanjing, 211198, China.
Department of Pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medical Formulae, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 138, Xianlin Road, Nanjing, 210029, China.
Neurochem Res. 2018 Nov;43(11):2111-2120. doi: 10.1007/s11064-018-2635-3. Epub 2018 Sep 26.
Chronic mild unpredictable stress (CUMS) causes neurogenesis damage in the hippocampus and depressive-like behaviors such as cognitive impairment. Radix Scutellariae from the dry root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, with the common name Baikal skullcap. In this study, we demonstrated that Radix Scutellariae (RS 500, 1000 mg/kg) notably improved the behavior of the rat, such as shortened escape latency in morris maze test, reduced immobility time in tail suspension test and in forced swimming test, as well as increased sucrose consumption in sucrose preference test. In addition, RS alleviated the damage CUMS-induced neurogenesis and the reduced levels of BrdU; DCX and NeuN, the neurons hallmark of hippocampus neurogenesis. Moreover, associated proteins in cAMP/PKA pathway were up-regulated after RS treatment. By HPLC analysis, we found that RS decoction contains four main components, including baicalin, baicalein, wogonoside and wogonin, respectively. In conclusion, RS could exert a natural antidepressant with improving depressive-like behavior via regulation of cAMP/PKA neurogenesis pathway.
慢性轻度不可预测应激（CUMS）可导致海马神经发生损伤和抑郁样行为，如认知障碍。黄芩来源于唇形科植物黄芩的干燥根，常用名黄芩。在这项研究中，我们证明黄芩（RS500，1000mg/kg）显著改善了大鼠的行为，如在 Morris 水迷宫试验中缩短逃避潜伏期，在悬尾试验和强迫游泳试验中减少不动时间，以及在蔗糖偏好试验中增加蔗糖消耗。此外，RS 减轻了 CUMS 诱导的神经发生损伤和 BrdU 减少；DCX 和 NeuN，海马神经发生的神经元标志物。此外，RS 处理后 cAMP/PKA 通路的相关蛋白上调。通过 HPLC 分析，我们发现 RS 煎剂含有 4 种主要成分，分别为黄芩苷、黄芩素、汉黄芩苷和汉黄芩素。总之，RS 通过调节 cAMP/PKA 神经发生通路，可发挥天然抗抑郁作用，改善抑郁样行为。
