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Ren J, Zhang Y, Pan H, Shi R, Zhu H, Yang R, Zhang L, Chen B, Zhu T, Lu X, Huang C. Mobilization of the innate immune response by a specific immunostimulant β-glucan confers resistance to chronic stress-induced depression-like behavior by preventing neuroinflammatory responses. Int Immunopharmacol 2024; 127:111405. [PMID: 38118316 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.111405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2023] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/22/2023]
Abstract
Pre-stimulation of the innate immune response is an effective strategy to prevent depression-like phenotypes in animals. However, the use of conventional immunostimulants may cause adverse effects. Therefore, the search for agents that stimulate the innate immune response but do not induce a pro-inflammatory response could be a new research direction for the prevention of depression. β-glucan is a polysaccharide from Saccharomyces cerevisiae with unique immunomodulatory activity in microglia without eliciting a pro-inflammatory response that could lead to tissue damage. This suggests that β-glucan may be a suitable drug that can be used to prevent depression-like phenotypes. Our results showed that a single injection of β-glucan 1 day before stress exposure at a dose of 10 or 20 mg/kg, but notat a dose of 5 mg/kg, prevented depression-like behavior in mice treated with chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). This effect of β-glucan disappeared when the time interval between β-glucan and stress was extended from 1 day or 5 days to 10 days, which was rescued by a second injection 10 days after the first injection or by a repeated injection (4×, once daily) 10 days before stress exposure. A single β-glucan injection (20 mg/kg) 1 day before stress exposure prevented the CUS-induced increase in brain pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inhibition of the innate immune response by minocycline (40 mg/kg) abolished the preventive effect of β-glucan on CUS-induced depression-like behaviors and neuroinflammatory responses. These results suggest that β-glucan may prevent chronic stress-induced depression-like phenotypes and neuroinflammatory responses by stimulating the innate immune response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Ren
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yi Zhang
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Hainan Pan
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Ruiting Shi
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Macau, Av. Parde Tomas Pereira, Taipa 999078, Macau
| | - Haojie Zhu
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Rongrong Yang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, China
| | - Lin Zhang
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China; Department of Pharmacy, Affiliated Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Nantong University, #399 Shiji Dadao, Nantong 226007, Jiangsu, China
| | - Bingran Chen
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Tao Zhu
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China
| | - Xu Lu
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China.
| | - Chao Huang
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China.
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