Neuroscience Program, University of Bremen, Germany; Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany.
Integrative Neuroscience Program, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2019 May 10;235:320-328. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2019.02.031. Epub 2019 Feb 15.
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The plant arctic root (Rhodiola rosea, L.) is growing in northern regions of Europe, Asia and North America. Extracts of R. rosea are used in traditional medicine for various conditions related to nervous system function. According to scientific studies from the last decades, the plant might have potential for use in the treatment of memory impairments, stress and depression, but reports concerning other neuropsychiatric disorders are scarce.
In this context, our study aimed to examine potential antipsychotic-like effects of R. rosea root extract.
We tested the effects of R. rosea root extract on prepulse inhibition in rats and mice. Prepulse inhibition is an established operational measure of sensorimotor gating, which is impaired in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
R. rosea root extract increased prepulse inhibition in rats and mice. Interestingly, the R. rosea extract had stronger effects in those individual animals that had low baseline levels of prepulse inhibition. Therefore, we performed further experiments in which we pharmacologically induced a prepulse inhibition deficit by two different psychostimulants, either the dopamine D2 receptor agonist apomorphine or the NMDA receptor antagonist dizocilpine (MK-801). Pre-treatment with the R. rosea extract significantly restored both, apomorphine- and dizocilpine-induced prepulse inhibition deficits.
The present study demonstrates that R. rosea extract robustly reverses prepulse inhibition deficits in rodents. This suggests antipsychotic-like effects of R. rosea extract. Future studies should focus on the pharmacological mechanisms underlying these effects.
民族药理学相关性：北极根植物（Rhodia rosea，L.）生长在欧洲、亚洲和北美的北部地区。R. rosea 的提取物在传统医学中用于治疗与神经系统功能相关的各种疾病。根据过去几十年的科学研究，该植物可能具有治疗记忆障碍、压力和抑郁的潜力，但有关其他神经精神疾病的报告却很少。
在这种情况下，我们的研究旨在研究 R. rosea 根提取物的潜在抗精神病样作用。
我们测试了 R. rosea 根提取物对大鼠和小鼠的前脉冲抑制的影响。前脉冲抑制是一种已建立的感觉运动门控的操作测量方法，在精神分裂症和其他精神病障碍中受到损害。
R. rosea 根提取物增加了大鼠和小鼠的前脉冲抑制。有趣的是，在那些前脉冲抑制基线水平较低的个体动物中，R. rosea 提取物的作用更强。因此，我们进行了进一步的实验，其中我们用两种不同的精神兴奋剂，即多巴胺 D2 受体激动剂阿扑吗啡或 NMDA 受体拮抗剂地卓西平（MK-801），药理学诱导前脉冲抑制缺陷。R. rosea 提取物的预处理显著恢复了阿扑吗啡和地卓西平诱导的前脉冲抑制缺陷。
本研究表明，R. rosea 提取物可有效逆转啮齿动物的前脉冲抑制缺陷。这表明 R. rosea 提取物具有抗精神病样作用。未来的研究应集中于这些作用的药理学机制。
