ABSTRACT
Depression is a mental disorder characterized by persistent low mood and belongs to the category of "stagnation syndrome" in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）， with the characteristics of high prevalence， high disability rate， high suicide rate， and high recurrence rate. The pathogenesis of depression is extremely complex and involves factors such as genetics， psychology， and social environment. Currently， clinical antidepressant drugs such as tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants， and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors， have slow onset of action and significant adverse effects with long-term application. Furthermore， clinical statistics show that about one-third of patients do not respond to these types of medications. Enhancing the effectiveness of depression treatment has become a major challenge in the medical field. TCM， based on the holistic view and treatment based on syndrome differentiation， has unique advantages in the prevention and treatment of depression， including stable therapeutic effects， low recurrence rate， minimal side effects， and good patient compliance. As one of the heat-clearing drugs， Gardeniae Fructus has the effects of clearing heat， purging fire， cooling blood， and relieving restlessness， which makes it effective in treating patients with "stagnation syndrome". Literature studies have found that active components of Gardeniae Fructus， such as geniposide， genipin， and crocin， as well as drug pairs such as Gardeniae Fructus-Chuanxiong Rhizoma， Gardeniae Fructus-Acanthopanacis Senticosi Radix et Rhizoma Seu Caulis， and Gardeniae Fructus-Lycii Fructus， and prescriptions such as Zhizichi Tang， Yuejuwan， Zhizi Houpotang， Danzhi Xiaoyaosan， and Jieyu Anshen Granules， have shown significant antidepressant effects. The mechanism of action may be related to regulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal （HPA） axis， modulating neurotransmitters such as serotonin （5-HT） and dopamine （DA）， increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor （BDNF） in the hippocampus， enhancing neurogenesis in the hippocampus， and regulating the nuclear factor-kappa B （NF-κB） signaling pathway to inhibit neuroinflammation. This article summarized the research progress on the active components of Gardeniae Fructus， drug pairs， and Chinse medicinal prescriptions containing Gardeniae Fructus， providing references for further promoting the clinical application of Gardeniae Fructus and its prescriptions in the treatment of depression.
ABSTRACT
The traditional Chinese medicine prescription Yueju Wan has the function of regulating qi-flowing for activating stagnancy and resolving food stagnation, which is now used for the treatment of depression and gastrointestinal related diseases. In this study, an integrative pharmacological method was adopted to predict the targets and pathways of Yueju Wan and explore its molecular mechanism for depression and gastrointestinal dysfunction with the same treatment. First, disease targets were collected from Human Phenotype Ontology database, 201 targets related to depression and 474 targets related to gastrointestinal dysfunction, including 95 common targets of these two. Then, the integrative pharmacology platform of traditional Chinese medicine (TCMIP) was used to predict and analyze the drug targets, GO function, KEGG pathway, core targets network of Yueju Wan and heterogeneous network of TCM-chemical components-key drug targets-pathway. According to the integrative analysis, it is found that ATP1A1, KRAS, and PRKAA1 were key targets, and neuron apoptotic process, neurotrophin signaling pathway, serotonergic synapse and regulation of nitric-oxide synthase activity were key pathways which played important roles in molecular mechanism of Yueju Wan for depression and gastrointestinal dysfunction. In conclusion, speculated serotonergic synapse and regulation of nitric-oxide synthase activity maybe the common process in depression and gastrointestinal dysfunction. This paper provided an overall understanding on Yueju Wan based on TCMIP, helping to elucidate the mechanism of the same treatment for different diseases, depression and gastrointestinal dysfunction.
ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo observe the effects of six stagnations elimination therapy on the content of typeⅠ, typeⅢ collagens and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) expression in atherosclerotic mice with vulnerable plaques, to discuss the possible mechanisms of this therapy in stabilizing vulnerable plaques.Methods The ApoE knockout mice were fed on high-fat diets, which built the vulnerable plaques model. Five groups were established, including normal group, model group, high-dose group, low-dose group, and simvastatin group, with 10 mice in each group. Dose groups were given drug intervention, while normal group and model group were given in the same amount of saline. After 12 weeks of drug intervention, the mice were put to death. TypeⅠ and typeⅢcollagens were observed using picric acid-Sirius red staining method. The expression of MMP-9 was detected by immunohistochemical method.ResultsCompared with normal group, vulnerable plaques formed more easily in model group.Compared with model group, typeⅠ collagen increased in high-does and low-dose groups, while typeⅢ collagen, the ratio of typeⅢ andⅠ collagens, and the expression of MMP-9 decreased (P<0.01).ConclusionSix stagnations elimination therapy could stabilize vulnerable plaques. Regulating typeⅠ andⅢ collagens content and inhibiting the expression of MMP-9 may be one of its possible mechanisms.