Resveratrol is promising for anxiety and depression

A new study has shown that the resveratrol compound found in red wine has stress-relieving effects in cases of anxiety and depression. This could be due to the ability of resveratrol to control an enzyme in the brain that we like to stress, say researchers at the University of Buffalo in collaboration with Xuzhou Medical University in China.

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The study titled "The effects of resveratrol on antidepressants and anxiolytics: involvement of phosphodiesterase-4D inhibition" was published in the latest issue of the journal neuropharmacology.

According to the American Association of Anxiety and Depression, nearly 16 and 40 million people in the United States, respectively, suffer from depression and anxiety. Ying Xu, co-lead author and badociate professor of research at the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, said in a statement: "Resveratrol can be an effective alternative to drugs to treat patients with depression and anxiety disorders. "

The study was co-written by Xiaoxing Yin, PhD, professor at Xuzhou Medical University in China.

The team explained that resveratrol has many health-promoting properties and is abundant in skin and seeds of berries and grapes. The team explained that resveratrol is a "non-flavonoid natural polyphenol present in red wine, which has many pharmacological properties, including anti-stress properties and similar to those of antidepressants." ) which, in turn, is influenced by corticosterone, a stress hormone. This discovery is new in their study, say the researchers.

The team explains that cortisol or corticosterone is released into the body in response to stress and that excessive stress can trigger an excessive release of the hormone that reaches the brain and leads to depression and to anxiety. At present, the treatment of depression and anxiety is focused on serotonin or norepinephrine, neurotransmitters in the brain. Xu said that one in three patients with depression and / or anxiety disorders benefit from the neurotransmitter-modulating drug and achieving complete remission.

For their study, the team used laboratory mice on which they showed that PDE4 in the brain was influenced by excess cortisol released in response to stress. This led to symptoms related to anxiety and depression in mice. They explain that PDE4 is able to lower cyclic adenosine monophosphate or cAMP in the brain, which is a messenger that causes the signaling of several physiological processes, including cell division, movement, and death in the body. The alteration of PDE4 and cAMP in the brain has resulted in alterations in brain structure, they noted.

The team studied the in vivo and in vitro effects of resveratrol in laboratory mice. They noted that a specific region of the brain called the hippocampus was impaired by the increase in PDE4 expression that resulted in anxiety and depression, as well as the behavior of the patients. mouse. They noted that by using only "100μM" or minute amounts of corticosterone, they could induce PDE4 subtypes in the mouse brain called "PDE2A, PDE3B, PDE4A, PDE4D, PDE10 and PDE11". These were observed in the "HT-22 cells" of the laboratory and resulted in significant cell damage. After treatment with resveratrol, the cells became more viable and with the increasing dose of the compound, cell viability increased, the researchers explained. The PDE4D expression was specifically affected by the resveratrol written by the team.

The team discovered that the resveratrol compound could help reverse these effects and showed a neuroprotective effect in the brain by fighting the damage caused by corticosterone. The compound succeeded in inhibiting the expression of PDE4. The researchers concluded that "the effects of antidepressants and anxiolytics induced by resveratrol are induced by PDE4D. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that PDE4D-mediated cAMP signaling plays an important role in the protective effects of resveratrol on stress-induced depression and anxiety behaviors. using resveratrol.

They add in the warning that the beneficial effect of resveratrol does not translate into red wine consumption and that alcohol consumption is badociated with various health risks.

Related study

A recent study (published in Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine in April 2019) also explored the therapeutic effects of resveratrol in mice with depression. The study was titled "Therapeutic Effect of Resveratrol on Depression Mice," by authors Zheng Gu and colleagues at the Xinxiang Medical University.

They selected laboratory rats with induced depression and divided them into groups, "model group, low dose group, medium dose group and high dose group" and the control group. The team wrote that rats in the low, medium and high dose groups received resveratrol injections at 10, 20 and 30 mg / kg, respectively. The control and model groups received normal saline. After a 21-day treatment, the tests showed a reduction in depression and brain tests showed an increase in dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain – indicators of depression. There was also a significant increase in neuropeptide Y expression in the brain in rats treated with resveratrol.

The team concluded in these terms: "Resveratrol can significantly increase the levels of neurotransmitters DA and 5-HT in the prefrontal cortex and increase the expression of NPY in the brain, which can play a role. antagonistic role in depression ".