Albizzia julibrissin is empirically used as an antidepressant in clinical practice. Preclinical studies have indicated that its total extracts or bioactive constituents exerted antidepressant-like responses in animal models, providing the molecular basis to reveal its underlying mechanism of action. While attempts have been made to understand the antidepressant effect of A. julibrissin, many fundamental questions regarding its mechanism of action remain to be addressed at the molecular and systems levels. In this review, we conclusively discussed the mechanism of action of A. julibrissin and A. julibrissin formulae by reviewing recent preclinical and clinical studies conducted by using depressive animal models and depressive patients. Several representative bioactive constituents and formulae were highlighted as examples, and their mechanisms of action were discussed. In addition, some representative A. julibrissin formulae that have been shown to be compatible with conventional antidepressants in clinical practice were also reviewed. Furthermore, we discussed the future research directions to reveal the underlying mechanism of A. julibrissin at the molecular and systems levels in depression treatment. The integrated study using both the molecular and systematic approaches is required not only for improving our understanding of its molecular basis and mechanisms of action, but also for providing a way to discover novel agents or approaches for the effective and systematic treatment of depression.
关键词:
合欢; 抗抑郁药; 抑郁症;作用机制
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Project Supported:
This research was funded by the Innovation Research of the Postgraduates of Guangzhou University (2020GDJC-M28); This research was also funded by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515011569 and 2021A1515012067) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071233).
Bishan Huang a,, Yingyao Wu a,, Chan Li a, Qingfa Tang b, Yuanwei Zhang a,*. Molecular basis and mechanism of action of Albizia julibrissin in depression treatment and clinical application of its formulae[J]. Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHM),2023,15(2):201-213
