Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences; State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Institutes of Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Transl Psychiatry. 2021 Feb 8;11(1):116. doi: 10.1038/s41398-021-01229-6.
Depression, cognitive deficits, and sleep disturbances are common and often severe in menopausal women. Hormone replacement cannot effectively alleviate these symptoms and sometimes elicits life-threatening adverse reactions. Exploring effective therapies to target psychological problems is urgently needed. In this work, we developed a mouse model of menopause by bilateral ovariectomies (OVXs) and investigated whether menopausal mental symptoms can be ameliorated by psychostimulant modafinil (MOD) as well as explored the underlying mechanisms. At ~3 weeks after OVXs, mice got daily intraperitoneal administrations of MOD at the beginning of the active phase. Several behavioral tests and electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were conducted. Electrophysiological and immunohistochemical experiments were carried out to evaluate the synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis, respectively. We found that chronic MOD administration in OVX mice significantly decreased immobility time. The spatial memory performance of OVX mice improved significantly in response to MOD administration in the Morris water-maze test. The OVX mice were characterized by an attenuation of hippocampal synaptic transmission and synaptic long-term potentiation and had fewer 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine-labeled cells in the dentate gyrus, which were restored after MOD administration. Antagonists of dopamine D and D receptors and GABA receptor agonists were involved in MOD-exerted anti-depressant actions and augments of hippocampal neurogenesis in OVX mice. Moreover, night-dosed MOD therapy significantly promoted the night-time delta-band EEG power during wakefulness and the day-time rapid eye movement sleep amount, which were significantly reduced by OVXs. Collectively, these findings suggest that MOD is a promising therapeutic candidate for menopausal women.
绝经后妇女常出现抑郁、认知功能障碍和睡眠障碍,且症状通常较为严重。激素替代疗法虽能有效缓解这些症状,但有时会引发危及生命的不良反应。因此,探索针对心理问题的有效治疗方法迫在眉睫。在这项工作中,我们通过双侧卵巢切除术(OVX)建立了绝经小鼠模型,并研究了绝经相关精神症状是否可以通过精神兴奋剂莫达非尼(MOD)得到改善,同时探讨了其潜在机制。OVX 后约 3 周,小鼠开始在活动期每天接受腹腔注射 MOD。进行了几项行为测试和脑电图(EEG)记录。进行电生理和免疫组织化学实验分别评估突触可塑性和神经发生。我们发现,慢性 MOD 给药可显著减少 OVX 小鼠的不动时间。在 Morris 水迷宫测试中,MOD 给药可显著改善 OVX 小鼠的空间记忆表现。OVX 小鼠的海马突触传递和长时程增强减弱,齿状回中 5-乙炔基-2'-脱氧尿苷标记的细胞减少,MOD 给药后这些现象得到恢复。多巴胺 D 和 D 受体拮抗剂和 GABA 受体激动剂参与了 MOD 发挥的抗抑郁作用以及增强 OVX 小鼠海马神经发生。此外,夜间给药 MOD 治疗可显著增加清醒时的夜间 δ 波段 EEG 功率和 REM 睡眠时间,而 OVX 则显著减少了这些。总之,这些发现表明 MOD 是绝经妇女有前景的治疗候选药物。