ABSTRACT
Aim To explore the antidepressant mecha-nism and laws of traditional Chinese formula Yueju Pill by taking drug pair as the breakthrough point. Meth-ods On the basis of anti-depressant activities of Yueju Pill, the combination of different herbs was obtained by the successively disassembling, and the key drug pair was obtained through the acute administration of Yueju Pill in mice. In addition, chronic unpredictable mild stress model was established to further verify the anti-depressant effect of key drug pair, and to explore its molecular mechanism. Results The drug pair of zhizi and chuanxiong was necessary to anti-depression effect of Yueju Pill, and the immobility time of TST and FST was significantly reduced. As expected, the expres-sions of IL-6 and TNF-a and p-NF-kBp65, P-IkBa were obviously lower than those in model group, but the expressions of BDNF and TrkB were up-regulated than those in model group. Conclusions The drug pair of zhizi and chuanxiong is necessary for traditional Chinese formula Yueju Pill for the antidepressant effect. It is assumed that the antidepressant effect and mechanism of zhizi and chuanxiong are connected with cytokine IL-6, TNF-a and protein expressions of p-NF-kBp65, P-IkBa, and BDNF.