Chen Hong-Shu, Gu Li-Jia, Yang Yuan-Xiao, Guo Jian-You
The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Neurosci. 2019 Jan 22;12:1043. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.01043. eCollection 2018.
The Gan-Mai-Da-Zao (GMDZ) decoction is one of the most famous Chinese medicine prescriptions to treat emotional diseases in China. Here we examined the anxiolytic-like effects of the GMDZ decoction in mice. The mice were orally administered with GMDZ decoction (1, 2, and 4 g/kg, respectively) for 7 days, diazepam (2 mg/kg, p.o.) and buspirone (5 mg/kg, p.o.) were used as positive controls. Then, elevated plus maze (EPM) test, light/dark box (LDB) test, and marble burying (MB) test, open field (OF) test and rota-rod test were performed. We found that GMDZ treatment (2 and 4 g/kg) significantly increased the percentage of open arm entries and time spent on the open arms in EPM as compared to the control. GMDZ treatment also significantly increased the time spent in the light box and the number of light box entries in LDB and reduced the number of marbles buried in MB. Similarly to those observed with diazepam and buspirone. In contrast, GMDZ did not affect the locomotor activity in the OF and motor coordination in the rota-rod test. Furthermore, the anxiolytic-like effects induced by GMDZ were inhibited by the γ-aminobutyric acid-A (GABA) receptor antagonist flumazenil and 5-hydroxytryptamine-1A (5-HT) receptor antagonist WAY-100635. These results showed that GMDZ possesses anxiolytic-like effects in animal models, and its mechanism of action might be modulated by 5-HT and GABA receptors.
甘麦大枣汤是中国治疗情志病最著名的中药方剂之一。在此，我们研究了甘麦大枣汤对小鼠的抗焦虑样作用。小鼠分别口服甘麦大枣汤（分别为1、2和4 g/kg），连续7天，地西泮（2 mg/kg，口服）和丁螺环酮（5 mg/kg，口服）作为阳性对照。然后，进行高架十字迷宫（EPM）试验、明暗箱（LDB）试验、大理石埋藏（MB）试验、旷场（OF）试验和转棒试验。我们发现，与对照组相比，甘麦大枣汤治疗组（2和4 g/kg）显著增加了EPM中进入开放臂的百分比和在开放臂上花费的时间。甘麦大枣汤治疗还显著增加了LDB中在明箱中花费的时间和进入明箱的次数，并减少了MB中埋藏的大理石数量。与地西泮和丁螺环酮观察到的情况相似。相比之下，甘麦大枣汤在OF试验中不影响运动活性，在转棒试验中不影响运动协调性。此外，甘麦大枣汤诱导的抗焦虑样作用被γ-氨基丁酸-A（GABA）受体拮抗剂氟马西尼和5-羟色胺-1A（5-HT）受体拮抗剂WAY-100635抑制。这些结果表明，甘麦大枣汤在动物模型中具有抗焦虑样作用，其作用机制可能受5-HT和GABA受体调节。
