Anti-depressant effects of ethanol extract from (hemp) seed in chlorpromazine-induced depression model.

CONTEXT

Depression is a severe mental illness caused by a deficiency of dopamine and serotonin. L. (Cannabaceae) has long been used to treat pain, nausea, and depression.

OBJECTIVE

This study investigates the anti-depressant effects of (hemp) seed ethanol extract (HE) in chlorpromazine (CPZ)-induced depression model.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The normal group was untreated, and the control group was treated with CPZ (0.1% of media) for 7 days. The experimental groups were treated with a single HE treatment (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% of media) and a mixture of 0.1% CPZ and HE for 7 days. The locomotor activity, behavioural patterns, depression-related gene expression, and neurotransmitters level of flies were investigated.

RESULTS

The behavioural patterns of individual flies were significantly reduced with 0.1% CPZ treatment. In contrast, combination treatment of 1.5% HE and 0.1% CPZ significantly increased subjective daytime activity ( < 0.001) and behavioural factors ( < 0.001). These results correlate with increased transcript levels of dopamine ( < 0.001) and serotonin ( < 0.05) receptors and concentration of dopamine ( < 0.05), levodopa ( < 0.001), 5-HTP ( < 0.05), and serotonin ( < 0.001) compared to those in the control group.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, HE administration alleviates depression-like symptoms by modulating the circadian rhythm-related behaviours, transcript levels of neurotransmitter receptors, and neurotransmitter levels in the CPZ-induced model. However, additional research is needed to investigate the role of HE administration in behavioural patterns, reduction of the neurotransmitter, and signalling pathways of depression in a vertebrate model system.