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The inulin-type oligosaccharides extract from morinda officinalis, a traditional Chinese herb, ameliorated behavioral deficits in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder

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Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychiatric condition. The allopregnanolone biosynthesis has been implicated as one of the possible contributors to PTSD. Inulin-type oligosaccharides of morinda officinalis (IOMO) had been shown to be effective in the therapy of depression. However, few studies concern the anti-PTSD-like effects of IOMO. To evaluate this, the single prolonged stress (SPS) model was used in the present study. It had been shown that the behavioral deficits of SPS-treated rats were reversed by IOMO (25.0 and 50.0 mg/kg, i.p.), which reversed the increased freezing time in contextual fear paradigm (CFP) and the decreased time and entries in open arms in the elevated plus maze (EPM) test without affecting the locomotor activity in the open field (OF) test. In addition, the decreased allopregnanolone in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala was reversed by IOMO (25.0 and 50.0 mg/kg, i.p.), respectively. In summary, the present study indicated that the IOMO exert anti-PTSD-like behaviors, which maybe associated with the brain allopregnanolone biosynthesis.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Zhuo-Wei Gao to provide the herbal powder of morinda officinalis for our study. This study was supported by a grant from Guangdong Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2014A030310103).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Pharmaceutical Department of The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Clinical Pharmacy Department of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

      Zhi-Kun Qiu & Ji-Sheng Chen

    2. Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China

      Chun-Hui Liu

    3. Department of ICU, Shunde TCM Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Foshan, 528333, China

      Zhuo-Wei Gao & Qing-Lan Wei

    4. Department of Endocrinology, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, China

      Jia-Li He

    5. Pharmacy Department of General Hospital of Chinese People’s Armed Police Forces, Beijing, 100039, China

      Xu Liu

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    1. Zhi-Kun Qiu
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    Correspondence to Jia-Li He, Qing-Lan Wei or Ji-Sheng Chen.

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    Zhi-Kun Qiu and Chun-Hui Liu contributed equally to this work.

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    Qiu, ZK., Liu, CH., Gao, ZW. et al. The inulin-type oligosaccharides extract from morinda officinalis, a traditional Chinese herb, ameliorated behavioral deficits in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Metab Brain Dis 31, 1143–1149 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-016-9853-7

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