Meranzin hydrate, a component of the traditional Chinese medication Chaihu-Shugan-San, successfully treats both coronary heart disease and depression, likely through an action on anti-inflammatory and BDNF-TrkB signaling.
In this study, mice were fed a high-fat diet over the course of 16 weeks so as to induce atherosclerosis and behaviours indicative of depression. They were then administered either high or low doses of Chaihu-Shugan-San (CSS) and its main component, Meranzin Hydrate (MH), via ingestion. The investigators then assessed depressive-like behaviors using a range of tests- the sucrose preference test, the open field test, the light-dark test and the tail-suspension test. Following these, measurements were taken of the area of atherosclerotic plaques, plasma lipid and inflammatory cytokine levels, and BDNF/TrkB expression.
In the results, the researchers noticed distinct depressant behaviours in the animal models suffering from atherosclerosis. However, there were substantial improvements when they were treated with CSS, seen in the reduction of these depressive behaviours, smaller atherosclerotic plaques, decreased levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol and inflammatory cytokines in plasma and the hippocampus, and an accompanying increase in BDNF/TrkB expression in the aorta and hippocampus. Interestingly, similar changes were observed when mice were treated with meranzin hydrate alone, suggesting that it could be the primary active component of CSS responsible for these effects. Further tests also showed that meranzin hydrate increased BDNF/TrkB expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.
