Isoflurane produces antidepressant effects inducing BDNF-TrkB signaling in CUMS mice

• Published in: Psychopharmacology Vol. 236; no. 11; pp. 3301 - 3315
• Main Authors: Zhang, Sha-Sha, Tian, Yu-Hua, Jin, Song-Jun, Wang, Wen-Cheng, Zhao, Jing-Xin, Si, Xiao-Ming, Zhang, Li, Xu, Hong, Jin, Jing-Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-11-2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: AKT protein; Analysis; Anesthesia; Anesthetics, Inhalation - pharmacology; Anesthetics, Inhalation - therapeutic use; Animal models; Animals; Antidepressants; Antidepressive Agents - pharmacology; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Behavioral assessment; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - metabolism; Care and treatment; Clinical trials; Dendritic spines; Depression - drug therapy; Depression - metabolism; Depression - psychology; Depression, Mental; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Hippocampus; Isoflurane; Isoflurane - pharmacology; Isoflurane - therapeutic use; Ketamine; Kinases; Male; Membrane Glycoproteins - metabolism; Mental depression; Methods; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Neurosciences; Original Investigation; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Phosphotransferases; Prefrontal cortex; Properties; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases - metabolism; Psychiatry; Random Allocation; Rapamycin; Signal transduction; Signal Transduction - drug effects; Signal Transduction - physiology; Spine; Stress, Psychological - metabolism; Sucrose; Sugar; TOR protein; TrkB receptors; Tropomyosin; China; Chronic unpredictable mild stressed; Rapid antidepressant activity; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Dendritic spine density; Isoflurane; Tropomyosin receptor kinase B
• ISSN: 0033-3158; 1432-2072
• DOI: 10.1007/s00213-019-05287-z

Rationale
The volatile anesthetic isoflurane is suggested to produce a rapid and robust antidepressive effect in preliminary clinical trials. Recently, isoflurane was found to activate the tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) signaling which is the underlying mechanism of the rapid antidepressant ketamine.
Objective
Our study investigated the effect of isoflurane anesthesia on chronic unpredictable mild stressed (CUMS) model in mice and verified the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)/TrkB/ the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in the antidepressant effect of isoflurane.
Methods
We employed the CUMS model of depression to assess the rapid antidepressant effect of isoflurane by the forced swimming test (FST), the sucrose preference test (SPT), and the novelty suppressed feeding test (NSFT). The protein expression of BDNF and TrkB/protein kinase B (PKB or Akt)/mTOR was determined through Western blot. The dendritic spine density in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) was measured by the Golgi staining.
Results
A brief burst-suppressing isoflurane anesthesia rapidly reversed the behavioral deficits caused by CUMS procedure, normalized the expression of BDNF and further activated the TrkB signaling pathway in CUMS-induced stressed mice in both prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HC). All of those behavioral and proteomic effects were blocked by K252a, a selective receptor inhibitor of TrkB. Isoflurane significantly promoted the formation of dendritic spines in both medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), CA1, CA3, and DG of the hippocampus.
Conclusion
Our study indicates that isoflurane exerts a rapid antidepressant-like effect in CUMS depression animal model, and the activation of BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway plays an indispensable role in the biological and behavioral antidepressant effects of isoflurane. A single exposure to isoflurane could repair synaptic damage caused by chronic stimulation.