Japanese team confirmed that taking stomach medicine can improve depressive symptoms

[ China Pharmaceutical Network Technology News ] In recent years, the global number of patients with depression has increased greatly, and the existing antidepressants have great side effects, so it is necessary to develop a new mechanism of antidepressant drugs. Japan reported that a team recently passed the white rat experiment and confirmed that taking stomach medicine can improve depressive symptoms.

(The Japanese team confirmed that taking stomach medicine can improve depressive symptoms. Image Source: Baidu Pictures)

According to the Japanese "Daily News" reported on June 4th, the Japanese Okayama Science and Technology Research Group passed the white rat experiment, confirmed that taking stomach medicine can improve the symptoms of depression, and published the research results. In the future, the research team will conduct clinical treatment for patients with depression to confirm how effective the stomach medicine is for humans. On June 1, the scientific journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science published the results of this research.

The team's backbone, the University's School of Science lecturer Hiroshi Hiroshi (Molecular Biology), said that the stomach drug tepreperone can improve depressive symptoms. When cells are stimulated and destroyed by stress, heat shock proteins (HSP) are induced to protect the cell structure from damage. Teprenone promotes the expression of heat shock protein (HSP). This study further confirmed that HSP is associated with the onset and symptoms of depression.

The research team put the mice into the experimental cage (the rats in the experimental cage that have a strong sense of the site), and analyzed the brains of the mice that were attacked, nervous, and showed depressive symptoms, and found the hippocampus of the brain. The amount of HSP expression in memory and learning is significantly reduced compared to normal white mice.

Therefore, after oral administration of teprenone, the mice were no longer afraid of other white mice and the symptoms of depression were improved. The research team confirmed that the increase in HSP promotes nerve growth and regeneration, and the expression of anti-depressant neurotrophic factor (BDNF) increases, and the mechanism for improving depressive symptoms is clarified.

In addition, in order to confirm the efficacy of teprenone in humans, the team analyzed the database published by the US Food and Drug Administration. It is well known that the drug "interferon" for the treatment of hepatitis causes depression. However, the research team confirmed by experiment that after taking teprenone, the incidence of depression will be reduced by about 40%.

The team said that existing antidepressants have major side effects and require the development of a new mechanism for antidepressants. Hashikawa said: "The safety of teprenone has been confirmed, we will confirm its efficacy in clinical treatment, and strive to make this drug practical in 2 or 3 years."