Radix Polygalae Extract Attenuates PTSD-like Symptoms in a Mouse Model of Single Prolonged Stress and Conditioned Fear Possibly by Reversing BAG1.
- Author:
Ju Yeon SHIN
1
;
Jung Won SHIN
;
Sang Kyu HA
;
Yoorim KIM
;
Kelley M SWANBERG
;
Suck LEE
;
Tae Woo KIM
;
Sungho MAENG
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Yuan zhi; fear; PTSD; traumatic stress disorders; anxiety
- MeSH: Animals; Anxiety; Cohort Studies; Freezing; Hippocampus; Humans; Male; Medicine, East Asian Traditional; Memory; Memory, Short-Term; Mice*; Polygala*; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress, Psychological
- From:Experimental Neurobiology 2018;27(3):200-209
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Radix Polygalae (RP) has been used to relieve psychological stress in traditional oriental medicine. Recently, cell protective, antiamnestic and antidepressant-like effects were disclosed but the possible application of RP to post-traumatic stress disorder, in which exaggerated fear memory persists, has not yet been explored. For this purpose, the effects of RP on fear behavior was examined in a mouse model of single prolonged stress and conditioned fear (SPS-CF), previously shown to mimic key symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Male mice received daily oral dose of RP extract or vehicle during the SPS-CF procedure. Then fear-related memory (cohort 1, n=25), non-fear-related memory (cohort 2, n=38) and concentration-dependent effects of RP on fear memory (cohort 3, n=41) were measured in 3 separate cohort of animals. Also working memory and anxiety-like behaviors were measured in cohort 1. RP-treated SPS-CF mice exhibited attenuated contextual but not cued freezing and no impairments in the working memory and spatial reference memory performances relative to vehicle-treated SPS-CF controls. RP-treated SPS-CF and naive mice also demonstrated no difference in anxiety-like behavior levels relative to vehicle-treated SPS-CF and naive controls, respectively. In the hippocampus of SPS-CF mice, expression of BAG1, which regulates the activity of GR, was decreased, whereas RP increased expression of BAG1 in naïve and SPS-CF mice. These results suggest that RP exerts some symptomatic relief in a mouse with exaggerated fear response. RP and its molecular components may thus constitute valuable research targets in the development of novel therapeutics for stress-related psychological disorders.
