2. Academic Validation
  3. WS6 Induces Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Correlation to its Antidepressant Effect on the Alleviation of Depressive-like Behaviors of Rats

WS6 Induces Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Correlation to its Antidepressant Effect on the Alleviation of Depressive-like Behaviors of Rats

  • Neuroscience. 2021 Oct 1;473:119-129. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.08.020.
Heao Zhang 1,  Lin Xiang 1,  Liang Yang 1,  Si Wu 1,  Sisi Liu 1,  Juan Zhao 1,  Da Song 1,  Congxuan Ma 2,  Junjun Ni 1,  Zhenzhen Quan 1,  Jianhua Liang 3,  Hong Qing 4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy, School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
  • 2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
  • 3 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 4 Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy, School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 34455011 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.08.020
Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders. However, the effective drugs for MDD have not yet been developed. WS6 is originally designed with a similar structure as Resveratrol and Pterostilbene. The present study aims to investigate the neuroprotective and ameliorating effects of WS6 treatment in a rat model of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) induced depression. The results show that CUMS is effective in producing depressive-like behavior in rats as indicated by decreased responses in the locomotor activity, sucrose preference test and increased immobility time. However, WS6 treatment significantly ameliorated these behavioral alterations associated with CUMS-induced depression. Moreover, the reduction in neurogenesis, GABAergic neurons, dendrite complexity, spine density and synaptic plasticity-associate protein 95 (PSD95) by CUMS can be reversed by treatment with WS6. Taken together, this study highlights the neuroprotective and antidepressant-like effects of WS6 against CUMS-induced depression, and suggest a possible mechanism for this protection via changes in neurogenesis within the hippocampus. These finding reveal the therapeutic protection of WS6 for use in clinical trials in the treatment of neuronal deterioration in MDD.

Keywords

WS6; chronic unpredictable mild stress; major depressive disorder; neurogenesis.

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