Chronic N-acetyl-cysteine treatment enhances the expression of the immediate early gene Nr4a1 in response to an acute challenge in male rats: comparison with the antidepressant venlafaxine
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2023
Citazione:
Chronic N-acetyl-cysteine treatment enhances the expression of the immediate early gene Nr4a1 in response to an acute challenge in male rats: comparison with the antidepressant venlafaxine / P. Brivio, M.T. Gallo, P. Gruca, M. Lason, E. Litwa, F. Fumagalli, M. Papp, F. Calabrese. - In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES. - ISSN 1661-6596. - 24:8(2023 Apr 15), pp. 7321.1-7321.14. [10.3390/ijms24087321]
Abstract:
Despite several antidepressant treatments being available in clinics, they are not effective
in all patients. In recent years, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been explored as adjunctive therapy for
many psychiatric disorders, including depression, for its antioxidant properties. Given the promising
efficacy of this compound for the treatment of such pathologies, it is fundamental to investigate, at
the preclinical level, the ability of the drug to act in the modulation of neuroplastic mechanisms in
basal conditions and during challenging events in order to highlight the potential features of the drug
useful for clinical efficacy. To this aim, adult male Wistar rats were treated with the antidepressant
venlafaxine (VLX) (10 mg/kg) or NAC (300 mg/kg) for 21 days and then subjected to 1 h of acute
restraint stress (ARS). We found that NAC enhanced the expression of several immediate early genes,
markers of neuronal plasticity in the ventral and dorsal hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and amygdala,
and in particular it mediated the acute-stress-induced upregulation of Nr4a1 expression more than
VLX. These data suggested the ability of NAC to induce coping strategies to face external challenges,
highlighting its potential for the improvement of neuroplastic mechanisms for the promotion of
resilience, in particular via the modulation of Nr4a1.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
restraint; antioxidant; IEGs; neuroplastic mechanisms; rats; psychiatric disorders
Elenco autori:
P. Brivio, M.T. Gallo, P. Gruca, M. Lason, E. Litwa, F. Fumagalli, M. Papp, F. Calabrese
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