Weiwei Tao

Involvement of normalized NMDA receptor and mTOR-related signaling in rapid antidepressant effects of Yueju and ketamine on chronically stressed mice

Yueju, a Traditional Chinese Medicine formula, exhibited fast-onset antidepressant responses similar to ketamine. This study focused on assessing the rapid and persistent antidepressant efficacy of Yueju and ketamine in chronically stressed mice and its association with alternations in prefrontal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-related activity. Chronic mild stress (CMS) led to deficits in sucrose preference test (SPT), forced swim test, tail suspension test, and novelty-suppressed feeding test, which were improved differently by acute Yueju or ketamine administration. The improvement in SPT started as soon as 2 hours post Yueju and ketamine but lasted for 6 days only by Yueju. Body weight was regained by Yueju more than ketamine at post-drug administration day (PAD) 6. CMS decreased phosphorylation of the mTOR effectors 4E-BP1 and p70S6K, their upstream regulators ERK and Akt, and downstream targets including synaptic protein GluR1. Yueju or ketamine reversed these changes at PAD 2, but only Yueju reversed phosphor-Akt at PAD 6. CMS selectively and lastingly increased NMDA receptor subunit NR1 expression, which was reversed by ketamine or Yueju at PAD 2 but only by Yueju at PAD 6. These findings suggest that NR1 and Akt/mTOR signaling are important therapeutic targets for depression.

A Series of Natural Flavonoids as Thrombin Inhibitors: Structure-activity relationships

A series of natural flavonoids has been evaluated as potential inhibitors of thrombin using the optimized method of thrombin time. Myricetin and quercetin have shown to be the best thrombin inhibitors tested. In order to investigate the thrombin recognition of the most active and selective compounds, a molecular modeling study has been performed using available Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures as receptor models for docking experiments. Structure-activity relationships of flavonoids (SARs) on thrombin would facilitate the design of chemical compounds with higher potency to serve as potential thrombin inhibitors, and provide information for the exploitation and utilization of flavonoids as thrombin inhibitors for thrombotic disease treatment.

Simultaneous Determination of Eleven Major Flavonoids in the Pollen of Typha angustifolia by HPLC‐PDA‐MS

INTRODUCTION The pollen of Typha angustifolia L. has been used for the treatment of dysmenorrhea, stranguria and metrorrhagia. Flavonoids are major active compounds in this pollen and their quantification is important for its quality control. OBJECTIVE To establish an HPLC-PDA-MS method for simultaneous determination of the 11 majority flavonoids in the pollen of T. angustifolia. METHODOLOGY The optimal condition of separation was achieved on a reversed-phase C₁₈ column with gradient elution of acetonitrile and 0.05% formic acid (v/v) at a flow-rate of 0.8 mL/min; the column temperature was set at 35 °C. RESULTS All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r²  > 0.9992). The method provided good accuracy, precision, recovery and sensitivity for the quantification of the 11 compounds analysed. CONCLUSION The HPLC method established is appropriate for the quality assurance of the pollen of T. angustifolia.

Analysis of herb-herb interaction when decocting together by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and fuzzy chemical identification strategy with poly-proportion design.

A novel and generally applicable approach was established for the herb-herb interaction analysis when decocting together by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a triple quadrupole electrospray tandem mass spectrometer and fuzzy chemical identification with poly-proportion design. A simple programme was originally developed for the rapid identification and classification of herbal constituents on the basis of the establishment of herbal constituent databases, recognition of the reference compound peaks, selection of the diagnostic ions or fragmentation pathways, classification of chemical groups and formation of group networks. In this study, the exact structures of the chemical constituents did not need to be determined, and only the constituents attributed to different groups were further considered for quantitative analysis. Such a novel approach was successfully applied to kansui-licorice interaction analysis when decocting together. A total of 26 constituents from kansui and 45 constituents from licorice were classified into different chemical groups, and they were further quantitatively analyzed on the basis of semi-symmetric proportion design. The results showed that kansui could significantly promote the concentration of most triterpenoid saponins, phenylpropanoids and their glycosides (the constituents from licorice) in solution when co-decocting, and licorice could clearly promote the concentration of most diterpenes and triterpenes (the constituents from kansui) in solution, potentially explaining the incompatibility of kansui and licorice. Overall, the presently developed strategy should be useful for the interaction analysis for complex mixtures containing various complicated constituents, such as herbal, environmental, agricultural and biological samples.

Comparison of three officinal Chinese pharmacopoeia species of Glycyrrhiza based on separation and quantification of triterpene saponins and chemometrics analysis

The dried roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza species, named licorice, have been utilized as food as well as crude drugs in China for thousands of years. Glycyrrhiza species can be differentiated based on the morphologic features of their aerial part, i.e. leaf and fruit morphologies, but not on their root morphology, even though that is the medicinal part. In this paper, a fast and effective UPLC-TQ-MS/MS method was explored for better identification and quantitative investigation of triterpene saponins in licorice, which laid basis for chemical comparison of three officinal Chinese pharmacopoeia Glycyrrhiza species. The results showed that all of these licorice samples were rich in triterpene saponins but with significant difference corresponding to different Glycyrrhiza species. The proposed method could be useful in quality control and standardization of licorice raw materials and its products.

Platycodin D attenuates acute lung injury by suppressing apoptosis and inflammation in vivo and in vitro

Platycodin D (PLD) is the major triterpene saponin in the root of Platycodon grandiflorum (Jacq.) with various pharmacological activities. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the protective effects and possible mechanisms of PLD on acute lung injury (ALI) both in vivo and in vitro. In vivo, we used two ALI models, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI and bleomycin (BLE)-induced ALI to evaluate the protective effects and possible mechanisms of PLD. Female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into the following groups: control group, LPS group, LPS plus pre-treatment with dexamethasone (2 mg/kg) group, LPS plus pre-treatment with PLD groups (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg), LPS plus post-treatment with dexamethasone (2 mg/kg) group, LPS plus post-treatment with PLD groups (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg), BLE group, BLE plus pre-treatment with dexamethasone (2 mg/kg) group, BLE plus pre-treatment with PLD groups (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg), BLE plus post-treatment with dexamethasone (2 mg/kg) group, and BLE plus post-treatment with PLD groups (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg). PLD was orally administered before or after LPS or BLE challenge with mice. Mice were sacrificed, and lung tissues and bronchoalveolar fluid (BALF) were prepared for further analysis. Our results showed that PLD significantly decreased lung wet-to-dry weight ratio (lung W/D weight ratio), total leukocyte number and neutrophil percentage in the BALF, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity of lung in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, cytokine levels, including interleukin (IL)-6, tumor neurosis factor (TNF)-α were also found significantly inhibited in BALF. Furthermore, PLD effectively inhibited the expressions of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), Caspase-3 and Bax in the lung tissues, as well as restored the expression of Bcl-2 in the lungs and improved the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in BALF. In vitro, we used LPS-challenged cell model to evaluate the protective effects and possible mechanisms of PLD. MLE-12 cells were stimulated with LPS in the presence and absence of PLD. The levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and the expressions of NF-κB, Caspase-3, and Bax were remarkably down-regulated, while the expression of bcl-2 was significantly up-regulated in PLD treatment groups in MLE-12 cells. These results showed that the administration of PLD improved ALI both in vivo and in vitro, possibly through suppressing apoptosis and inflammation.

Casbane diterpenoids from the roots of Euphorbia pekinensis

Four casbane diterpenoids, together with three known related compounds were isolated from the roots of Euphorbia pekinensis. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic studies and comparison with the known related compounds. In addition, the absolute configuration of three compounds was determined by the modified Moshers method. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against seven human cancer cell lines by a WST-8 assay.

Yueju Pill Rapidly Induces Antidepressant-Like Effects and Acutely Enhances BDNF Expression in Mouse Brain

The traditional antidepressants have a major disadvantage in delayed onset of efficacy, and the emerging fast-acting antidepressant ketamine has adverse behavioral and neurotoxic effects. Yueju pill, an herb medicine formulated eight hundred years ago by Doctor Zhu Danxi, has been popularly prescribed in China for alleviation of depression-like symptoms. Although several clinical outcome studies reported the relative short onset of antidepressant effects of Yueju, this has not been scientifically investigated. We, therefore, examined the rapid antidepressant effect of Yueju in mice and tested the underlying molecular mechanisms. We found that acute administration of ethanol extract of Yueju rapidly attenuated depressive-like symptoms in learned helpless paradigm, and the antidepressant-like effects were sustained for at least 24 hours in tail suspension test in ICR mice. Additionally, Yueju, like ketamine, rapidly increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus, whereas the BDNF mRNA expression remained unaltered. Yueju rapidly reduced the phosphorylation of eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2), leading to desuppression of BDNF synthesis. Unlike ketamine, both the BDNF expression and eEF2 phosphorylation were revered at 24 hours after Yueju administration. This study is the first to demonstrate the rapid antidepressant effects of an herb medicine, offering an opportunity to improve therapy of depression.

Liquiritigenin reverses depression-like behavior in unpredictable chronic mild stress-induced mice by regulating PI3K/Akt/mTOR mediated BDNF/TrkB pathway

Major depression is a common long-lasting or recurrent psychiatric disease with high lifetime prevalence and high incidence of suicide. The main purpose of the current study was to verify whether liquiritigenin conferred an antidepressant-like effect on the depressive mouse model established by unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) and explore its possible mechanism. The results of depression-related behaviors including sucrose preference test (SPT), open field test (OFT), forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) indicated that both liquiritigenin (7.5mg/kg, 15mg/kg) and fluoxetine (20mg/kg) dramatically improved the depression symptoms. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed that treatment with liquiritigenin significantly reduced the concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in serum and hippocampus. Compared with the UCMS group, the administrations of liquiritigenin, increased levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), and decreased Malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Meanwhile, glucocorticoids (GC) content was reduced in the liquiritigenin group, which suggested that liquiritigenin exhibiting the ameliorative effect on activated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stimulated with UCMS. Mice treated with liquiritigenin showed restored levels of neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-HT). Western blot analysis displayed up-regulated expressions of p-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), p-Akt, p- mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), p-tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Thus, it was supposed that liquiritigenin might be useful for the treatment of chronic depression possibly through PI3K/Akt/mTOR mediated BDNF/TrkB pathway.

Rapid Antidepressant Activity of Ethanol Extract of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis Is Associated with Upregulation of BDNF Expression in the Hippocampus

Ethanol extract of Yueju pill, a Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal formula widely used to treat mood disorders, demonstrates rapid antidepressant effects similar to ketamine, likely via instant enhancement of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the hippocampus. Here we investigated ethanol extracts of the constituent herbs of Yueju responsible for rapid antidepressant effects. Screening with tail suspension test in Kunming mice at 24 hours after a single administration of five individual constituent herbs of Yueju, we found that only Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (GJ) showed a significant effect. The antidepressant response started at 2 hours after GJ administration. Similar to Yueju and ketamine, a single administration of GJ significantly reduced the number of escape failures in the learned helplessness test. Furthermore, GJ decreased latency of food consumption in the novelty suppressed-feeding test. Additionally, starting from 2 hours and continuing for over 20 hours after GJ administration, BDNF expression in the hippocampus was upregulated, temporally linked with the antidepressant response. These findings suggest that GJ has rapid antidepressant effects, which are associated with the elevated expression of BDNF in the hippocampus. In Yueju formula, Yue represents GJ, as thus our study demonstrates the primary role of GJ in rapid antidepressant efficacy of Yueju.