Metabonomic Study on the Antidepressant-Like Effects of Banxia Houpu Decoction and Its Action Mechanism

Zhanqiang Ma,Zhen Zhan,Mingyan Wang,Qiang Fu,Weiwei Ji,Rong Qu,Wen Yang,Shiping Ma

doi:10.1155/2013/213739

Abstract

The aim of this study was to establish an experimental model for metabonomic profiles of the rat's brain and then to investigate the antidepressant effect of Banxia Houpu decoction (BHD) and its possible mechanisms. Behavioral research and metabonomics method based on UPLC-MS were used to assess the efficacy of different fractions of BHD on chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model of depression. There was a significant difference between the BHD group and the model group. Eight endogenous metabolites, which are contributing to the separation of the model group and control group, were detected, while BHD group regulated the perturbed metabolites showing that there is a tendency of recovery compared to control group. Therefore, we think that those potential metabolite biomarkers have some relationship with BHD's antidepression effect. This work appraised the antidepressant effect of Banxia Houpu decoction as well as revealing a metabonomics method, a valuable parameter in the TCM research.

Highlights

Major depressive disorder (MDD), called major depression, a highly debilitating and widely distributed illness in the general population and an incapacitating disorder characterized by depressed mood, anhedonia, and altered cognitive function that causes a heavy burden to patients and their families, as well as to society [1]
The doses of distilled water extract of Banxia Houpu decoction (BHD) were expressed as gram of the original dry materials per kilogram body weight, and the dose (6 g/kg) of distilled water extract of BHD for animals was converted from the human dose
A metabonomics method based on UPLC/MS was developed to establish the metabonomic profiles of rats’ brain homogenate to investigate anti-depressive effect of BHD and its mechanism of action

Summary

Introduction

Major depressive disorder (MDD), called major depression, a highly debilitating and widely distributed illness in the general population and an incapacitating disorder characterized by depressed mood, anhedonia, and altered cognitive function that causes a heavy burden to patients and their families, as well as to society [1]. There is an urgent need for new effective and better tolerable antidepressants. In the verification of antidepressant drugs, CUMS is considered to be a well-assured animal model [6, 7]. Many behavioral and biochemical changes induced by CUMS are reversible by antidepressant treatments [8]. The CUMS model is suitable for investigating the pathophysiology of depression and antidepressant effects of diverse drugs [9]. Global metabolites profiling of biofluids has been assigned in the fields of drug discovery, therapeutic scrutinizing, and assessment of drug effectiveness and toxicity [13,14,15,16]

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