ArticleBMC complementary medicine and therapies2024
Gegen Qinlian decoction alleviates depression-like behavior by modulating the gut microenvironment in CUMS rats.
Article in BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Study on the Antidepressant Effect and Mechanism of Water Extract of Semiliquidambar cathayensis (WESC) Based on the GSK3β/NF-κB Signaling Pathway.Chemistry & biodiversity · 2026Article
- Optimization of potential targets for antidepressant Chinese medicines: AI and multi-omics methods.Chinese medicine · 2026Review
- Traditional Chinese Medicine Ameliorates Depression via the Gut-Brain Axis: A Review Focus on NLRP3/TLR4-Mediated Inflammatory Pathways and Gut Microbiota Modulation.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- Gastrodia elata fermentation alleviates methamphetamine-induced neuroinflammation and anxiety- and depression-like behaviors by regulating the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Depression and Gastrointestinal Health Abnormalities: Treatment Approaches from the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- Fecal microbiota composition and function are associated with anxiety and depression in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.PloS one · 2025Article
- New bitongling regulates gut microbiota to predict angiogenesis in rheumatoid arthritis via the gut-joint axis: a deep neural network approach.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- A new evaluation methodology study - Integrating 'ancient literature - clinical research - expert consensus' firstly proposes eight elements for taking Chinese medicine decoctions.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Gut microbiota as a novel target for treating anxiety and depression: from mechanisms to multimodal interventions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
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14 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundGegen Qinlian Decoction (GQD) is a classical traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula primarily utilized for treating gut disorders. GQD showed therapeutic effects on several diseases in clinical and animal studies by targeting gut microbes. Our recent studies also found that GQD efficiently alleviated anxiety in methamphetamine-withdrawn mice via regulating gut microbiome and metabolism. Given that various studies have indicated the link between the gut microbiome and the development of depression, here we endeavor to explore whether GQD can manage depression disorders by targeting the gut microbiome. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The depression-like model was induced in rats through chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) and the depression levels were determined using the sucrose preference test (SPT). To address the depression-like behavior in rats, oral administration of GQD was employed. The colon microbiome and metabolite patterns were determined by 16s rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics, respectively.
resultsWe found 6 weeks of CUMS can induce depression-like behavior in rats and 4 weeks of GQD treatment can significantly alleviate the depression-like behavior. GQD treatment can also ameliorate the histological lesions in the colon of CUMS rats. Then, CUMS increased the abundance of gut microbes, while GQD treatment can restore it to a lower level. We further discovered that the abundances of 19 bacteria at the genus level were changed with CUMS treatment, among which the abundances of Ruminococcus, Lachnoclostridium, Pygmaiobacter, Bacteroides, Pseudomonas, and Pseudomonas Family_XIII_AD3011_group were stored by GQD treatment. Besides, we identified the levels of 36 colon metabolites were changed with CUMS treatment, among which the levels of Fasciculic acid B, Spermine, Fludrocortisone acetate, alpha-Ketoglutaric acid, 2-Oxoglutaric acid, N'-(benzoyloxy)-2-(2,2-dichlorocyclopropyl) ethanimidamide, N6-Succinyl Adenosine Oleanolic acid, KQH, Ergosta-5,7,9(11),22-Tetraen-3-beta-Ol, Gentisic acid, 4-Hydroxyretinoic Acid, FAHFA (3:0/16:0), Leucine-enkephalin and N-lactoyl-phenylalanine can be restored by GQD treatment.
conclusionOur findings provide evidence supporting the therapeutic efficacy of GQD in alleviating depression-like behavior in CUMS rats, potentially being targeted on colon bacteria (especially the abundance of Ruminococcus and Bacteroides) and metabolites (especially the level of Oleanolic acid).
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