Chen Luge, Liu Yingwei, Xu Dawei, Zhang Na, Chen Yong, Yang Jin, Sun Lijuan
National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of High-Throughput Drug Screening Technology, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China.
School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hubei University for Nationalities, Enshi 445000, China.
Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2024 Sep 1;17(9):1161. doi: 10.3390/ph17091161.
With the increasing prevalence of insomnia-related diseases, the effective treatment of insomnia has become an important health research topic. Lavender ( Mill.) essential oil (LEO) is a commonly used medicine for the treatment of insomnia and neurological disorders. However, neither the active components nor its sedative-hypnotic mechanism have been fully discovered. This study aimed to screen the main active terpenes and discover the possible mechanism of LEO through network pharmacology in the treatment of insomnia-related diseases, as well as to verify our hypothesis in insomnia mice. The results showed that, in LEO's 15 potential active ingredients, beta-myrcene had strong sedative-hypnotic effects through the serotonergic synaptic pathway according to the network pharmacological prediction. Further, PCPA(DL-4-chlorophenylalanine)-induced insomnia mice were treated with beta-myrcene for one day or seven days. The quiet state of insomnia mice was increased effectively, and the hypnotic effect was enhanced by anaobarbital sodium by prolonging sleep duration, decreasing sleep latency, and increasing the rate of falling asleep. Beta-myrcene reduced the damage to hypothalamic neuron cells induced by PCPA and increased neurotransmitter levels of GABA, 5-HT, and Glu in the serum and hypothalamus of insomnia mice. Meanwhile, beta-myrcene exerted an improvement in insomnia by upregulating relevant genes and protein expression in the serotonergic synaptic pathway. These results support the merit of the sedative-hypnotic activity of LEO. Beta-myrcene, a terpene in LEO, may be the main source of its sedative-hypnotic properties. It may serve as a good potential compound in future clinical studies on coping with insomnia.
随着失眠相关疾病的患病率不断上升，失眠的有效治疗已成为一个重要的健康研究课题。薰衣草（Lavandula angustifolia Mill.）精油（LEO）是治疗失眠和神经紊乱的常用药物。然而，其活性成分及其镇静催眠机制尚未完全明确。本研究旨在通过网络药理学筛选LEO的主要活性萜类成分，并发现其治疗失眠相关疾病的可能机制，同时在失眠小鼠中验证我们的假设。结果表明，在LEO的15种潜在活性成分中，根据网络药理学预测，β-月桂烯通过血清素能突触途径具有较强的镇静催眠作用。此外，用β-月桂烯对PCPA（DL-4-氯苯丙氨酸）诱导的失眠小鼠进行为期1天或7天的治疗。结果有效提高了失眠小鼠的安静状态，通过延长睡眠时间、缩短睡眠潜伏期和提高入睡率，增强了苯巴比妥钠的催眠效果。β-月桂烯减少了PCPA诱导的下丘脑神经元细胞损伤，并提高了失眠小鼠血清和下丘脑中GABA、5-HT和Glu的神经递质水平。同时，β-月桂烯通过上调血清素能突触途径中的相关基因和蛋白表达改善失眠。这些结果支持了LEO镇静催眠活性的优点。β-月桂烯作为LEO中的一种萜类成分，可能是其镇静催眠特性的主要来源。它可能成为未来应对失眠临床研究中的一种良好潜在化合物。
