Antidepressant-like effects and cognitive enhancement of Schisandra chinensis in chronic unpredictable mild stress mice and its related mechanism

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 6903 - 15
• Main Authors: Yan, Tingxu, He, Bosai, Wan, Shutong, Xu, Mengjie, Yang, Huilin, Xiao, Feng, Bi, Kaishun, Jia, Ying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 31-07-2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 1-Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; 631/378/1831; 631/45/881; 64/60; AKT protein; Animals; Antidepressants; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - metabolism; Cognitive ability; CREB-Binding Protein - metabolism; Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein; Depression - drug therapy; Depression - etiology; Depression - metabolism; Disease Models, Animal; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Extracellular signal-regulated kinase; Gene Expression Regulation; Glycogen; Glycogen synthase kinase 3; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - metabolism; Humanities and Social Sciences; Immunofluorescence; Immunohistochemistry; Kinases; Male; Maze Learning; Membrane Glycoproteins - metabolism; Memory; Memory Disorders - drug therapy; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory Disorders - metabolism; Mental depression; Mice; multidisciplinary; Nootropic Agents - administration & dosage; Nootropic Agents - pharmacology; Plant Extracts - administration & dosage; Plant Extracts - pharmacology; Protein-tyrosine kinase receptors; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases - metabolism; Rodents; Schisandra; Schisandra - chemistry; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Signal Transduction - drug effects; Stress, Psychological - complications; Stress, Psychological - drug therapy; Stress, Psychological - metabolism; Sucrose; Swimming; TrkB receptors
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-07407-1

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether Schisandra chinensis extract (SCE) administration influences chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression and cognitive impairment, and explores underlying mechanisms. Sucrose preference test (SPT) and forced swimming test (FST) were used for assessing depressive symptoms, and Y-maze, Morris water maze were used for evaluating cognition processes. The results showed that CUMS (4 weeks) was effective in producing both depression and memory deficits in mice. Additionally, CUMS exposure significantly decreased brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in hippocampus as indicated by ELISA, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence assays, accompanied by down-regulated tyrosine kinase receptor B (TrkB)/cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/ protein kinase B (AKT)/ glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) signaling pathways. Chronic administration of SCE (600 or 1200 mg/kg, i.g.) significantly prevented all these CUMS-induced behavioral and biochemical alterations. It suggested that SCE could improve the depression-like emotional status and associated cognitive deficits in CUMS mice, which might be mediated by regulation of BDNF levels in hippocampus, as well as up-regulating of TrkB/CREB/ERK and PI3K/AKT/GSK-3β pathways.