ArticleThe international journal of neuropsychopharmacology2023
Cucurbitacin B Exerts Significant Antidepressant-Like Effects in a Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress Model of Depression: Involvement of the Hippocampal BDNF-TrkB System.
Article in The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Implications of neurogenesis in depression through BDNF: rodent models, regulatory pathways, gut microbiota, and potential therapy.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Cucurbitacin B alleviates DSS-induced experimental colitis by targeting ZNF70 to suppress the NLRP3/STAT3 signaling axis.Inflammopharmacology · 2025Article
- Cucurbitacin B and Its Derivatives: A Review of Progress in Biological Activities.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Adult hippocampal neurogenesis: pharmacological mechanisms of antidepressant active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough depression has been a serious neuropsychiatric disorder worldwide, current antidepressants used in clinical practice have various weaknesses, including delayed onset and low rates of efficacy. Recently, the development of new antidepressants from natural herbal medicine has become one of the important research hotspots. Cucurbitacin B is a natural compound widely distributed in the Cucurbitaceae and Cruciferae families and has many pharmacological activities. The present study aimed to investigate whether cucurbitacin B possess antidepressant-like effects in mice.
methodsThe antidepressant-like effects of cucurbitacin B on mice behaviors were explored using the forced swim test, tail suspension test, open field test, sucrose preference test, and a chronic unpredictable mild stress model of depression together. Then, western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to examine the effects of cucurbitacin B on the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-tyrosine kinase B (TrkB) signaling cascade and neurogenesis in the hippocampus of mice. Furthermore, BDNF-short hairpin RNA, K252a, and p-chlorophenylalanine methyl ester were adopted together to determine the antidepressant mechanism of cucurbitacin B.
resultsIt was found that administration of cucurbitacin B indeed produced notable antidepressant-like effects in mice, which were accompanied with significant promotion in both the hippocampal BDNF-TrkB pathway and neurogenesis. The antidepressant mechanism of cucurbitacin B involves the hippocampal BDNF-TrkB system but not the serotonin system.
conclusionsCucurbitacin B has the potential to be a novel antidepressant candidate.
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