Cerebral MAO Activity Is Not Altered by a Novel Herbal Antidepressant Treatment

Ravid Doron, Ziv Versano, Or Burstein, Motty Franko, Alon Shamir, Roni Toledano, Assaf Handelsman, Moshe Rehavi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Inhibition of monoamine oxidase (MAO)-A/B can ameliorate depressive- and anxiety-related symptoms via increase of monoamine extracellular levels. However, such inhibition can also instigate hypertensive response following exposure to dietary tyramine (i.e., “the cheese effect”). Novel herbal treatment (NHT) is an herbal formula that has been demonstrated to reduce depressive- and anxiety-like symptoms in pre-clinical studies. The aim of the current study was to examine whether the therapeutic potential of NHT is underlain by inhibition of MAO-A/B and whether NHT poses a risk for tyramine hyper-potentiation. Unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS)–exposed mice and naïve mice were treated for 3 weeks with NHT (30 mg/kg; i.p.), the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram (15 mg/kg; i.p.), or saline. Subsequently, MAO-A/B activities in the hypothalamus, striatum, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) were assessed. Exposure to UCMS led to significant increases in both MAO-A and MAO-B activities in the hypothalamus (p < 0.001) and in the PFC (p < 0.01 for MAO-A; p < 0.001 for MAO-B). Neither NHT nor escitalopram had any notable effects. Treatment with NHT was supported as safe in terms of risk for inducing a hypertensive response. The antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects of NHT are mediated via pathways other than MAO-A/B inhibition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)371-379
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Molecular Neuroscience
Volume69
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Funding

The authors would like to thank Nadav Kately for inventing and developing the NHT formula, Yafit Hirshler for her support in the realization of the manuscript, and Dr. Fong-pin Liang from KPC for his support in gathering data regarding the herbal compounds of NHT used in this study.

FundersFunder number
KPC

    Keywords

    • Depression
    • Escitalopram
    • Monoamine oxidase A/B (MAO-A/B)
    • Novel herbal treatment (NHT)
    • Unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS)

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