ArticleCell reports. Medicine2021
β-sitosterol reduces anxiety and synergizes with established anxiolytic drugs in mice.
Article in Cell reports. Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploration of the mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine for anxiety and depression in patients with diarrheal irritable bowel syndrome based on network pharmacology and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Wild Flora Species from Romania with Anxiolytic and Antidepressant Potential: A Global Perspective-Narrative Review.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- β-sitosterol attenuates hepatic lipid accumulation and fibrosis via NLRP3 signaling in MASH mice.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Standardized rice bran supplement ameliorates depressive behaviors via FKBP5 mediated glucocorticoid receptor signaling.NPJ science of food · 2025Article
- A Causal Inference Study of Circulating Metabolites Mediating the Effect of Obesity-Related Indicators on the Incidence of Anxiety Disorders.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Network Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Validation on Guiluoshi Anzang Decoction Against Premature Ovarian Insufficiency.Combinatorial chemistry & high throughput screening · 2025Article
- Differential modulation of pain and associated anxiety by GABAergic neuronal circuits in the lateral habenula.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Article
- Beta-sitosterol mitigates cognitive deficit and hippocampal neurodegeneration in mice with trimethyltin-induced toxicity.Experimental animals · 2024Article
- Spatial Metabolomics Profiling Reveals Curcumin Induces Metabolic Reprogramming in Three-Dimensional Tumor Spheroids.Metabolites · 2024Article
- Liver Extracellular Vesicles and Particles Enriched β-Sitosterol Effectively Promote Liver Regeneration in Mice.International journal of nanomedicine · 2024Article
- β-Sitosterol as a Promising Anticancer Agent for Chemoprevention and Chemotherapy: Mechanisms of Action and Future Prospects.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Review
- Metabolomics in drug research and development: The recent advances in technologies and applications.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2023Review
- Commentary: Midbrain projection to the basolateral amygdala encodes anxiety-like but not depression-like behaviors.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Network pharmacology, molecular docking, and experimental validation to explore the potential mechanism of Long Mu Qing Xin mixture for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Phytosterols Alleviate Hyperlipidemia by Regulating Gut Microbiota and Cholesterol Metabolism in Mice.Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2023Article
- β-sitosterol alleviates dextran sulfate sodium-induced experimental colitis via inhibition of NLRP3/Caspase-1/GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Evaluation of the Anxiolytic and Anti-Epileptogenic Potential ofAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Anxiolytic effect of YangshenDingzhi granules: Integrated network pharmacology and hippocampal metabolomics.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Carbon Dots Derived from Os Draconis and Their Anxiolytic Effect.International journal of nanomedicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anxiety and stress-related conditions represent a significant health burden in modern society. Unfortunately, most anxiolytic drugs are prone to side effects, limiting their long-term usage. Here, we employ a bioinformatics screen to identify drugs for repurposing as anxiolytics. Comparison of drug-induced gene-expression profiles with the hippocampal transcriptome of an importin α5 mutant mouse model with reduced anxiety identifies the hypocholesterolemic agent β-sitosterol as a promising candidate. β-sitosterol activity is validated by both intraperitoneal and oral application in mice, revealing it as the only clear anxiolytic from five closely related phytosterols. β-sitosterol injection reduces the effects of restraint stress, contextual fear memory, and c-Fos activation in the prefrontal cortex and dentate gyrus. Moreover, synergistic anxiolysis is observed when combining sub-efficacious doses of β-sitosterol with the SSRI fluoxetine. These preclinical findings support further development of β-sitosterol, either as a standalone anxiolytic or in combination with low-dose SSRIs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.