2. Academic Validation
  3. Inhibition of cortical synaptic transmission, behavioral nociceptive, and anxiodepressive-like responses by arecoline in adult mice

Inhibition of cortical synaptic transmission, behavioral nociceptive, and anxiodepressive-like responses by arecoline in adult mice

  • Mol Brain. 2024 Jun 17;17(1):39. doi: 10.1186/s13041-024-01106-5.
Qi-Yu Chen 1 2,  Yuxiang Zhang 2 3,  Yujie Ma 2 4,  Min Zhuo 5 6 7 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, Interdisciplinary Center for Brain Information, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen, China.
  • 2 Zhuomin International Institute for Brain Research, Qingdao, China.
  • 3 Institute for Brain Research and Rehabilitation, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
  • 4 Oujiang Laboratory (Zhejiang Lab for Regenerative Medicine, Vision and Brain Health), Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
  • 5 School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. [email protected].
  • 6 Zhuomin International Institute for Brain Research, Qingdao, China. [email protected].
  • 7 Oujiang Laboratory (Zhejiang Lab for Regenerative Medicine, Vision and Brain Health), Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. [email protected].
  • 8 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Medical Science Building, Room #3342, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON, M5S 1A8, Canada. [email protected].
PMID: 38886822 DOI: 10.1186/s13041-024-01106-5
Abstract

Areca nut, the seed of Areca catechu L., is one of the most widely consumed addictive substances in the world after nicotine, ethanol, and caffeine. The major effective constituent of A. catechu, arecoline, has been reported to affect the central nervous system. Less is known if it may affect pain and its related emotional responses. In this study, we found that oral application of arecoline alleviated the inflammatory pain and its induced anxiolytic and anti-depressive-like behavior. Arecoline also increased the mechanical nociceptive threshold and alleviated depression-like behavior in naïve mice. In the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which acts as a hinge of nociception and its related anxiety and depression, by using the multi-electrode field potential recording and whole-cell patch-clamp recording, we found that the evoked postsynaptic transmission in the ACC of adult mice has been inhibited by the application of arecoline. The muscarinic receptor is the major receptor of the arecoline in the ACC. Our results suggest that arecoline alleviates pain, anxiety, and depression-like behavior in both physiological and pathological conditions, and this new mechanism may help to treat patients with chronic pain and its related anxiety and disorder in the future.

Keywords

Anterior cingulate cortex; Anxiety; Arecoline; Depression; Pain.

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