Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Therapeutic effects of Jiaotai pill on rat insomnia via regulation of GABA signal pathway

Na-na Tang^1,2, Chang-wen Wu¹, Ming-qi Chen³, Xue-ai Zeng³, Xiu-feng Wang³, Yu Zhang³, Jun-shan Huang^1,3

¹Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350122; ²Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330004; ³The Sleep Research Center of Fujian Provincial Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian 350003, China.

For correspondence:- Jun-shan Huang Email: hjsfjtcm@163.com

Accepted: 5 August 2017 Published: 30 September 2017

Citation: Tang N, Wu C, Chen M, Zeng X, Wang X, Zhang Y, et al. Therapeutic effects of Jiaotai pill on rat insomnia via regulation of GABA signal pathway. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(9):2135-2140 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i9.13

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the therapeutic effects of Jiaotai pill (JTP) on rats with insomnia induced by p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA).

Methods: Rats with PCPA-induced insomnia were divided into 5 groups (n = 10), made up of control group, positive treatment group (estazolam 0.1 mg/kg), and 3 JTP treatment groups (0.6, 1.2 and 2.4 g/kg). Another group of 10 rats were treated as normal group. Rats in normal and control groups were treated with normal saline (10 mL/kg). After 14 days of drug treatment, the rats were injected intraperitoneally with sodium pentobarbital (45 mg/kg) and thereafter, latent period and sleeping time were recorded, while contents of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamic acid (Glu) in hypothalamus were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Furthermore, the expressions of glutamate decarboxylase 65 (GAD-65), glutamate decarboxylase 67 (GAD-67), GABA-aminotransferase (GABA)-T, anti-GABA transporter 1 (GAT)-1, anti-GABA transporter (GAT)-3, and GABA receptors (GABA-A and GABA-B) in the hypothalamus were analyzed by western blotting assay.

Results: The results showed that JTP (0.6, 1.2 and 2.4 g/kg) significantly shortened latent period and prolonged sleeping time (p < 0.01). JTP also increased GABA level (p < 0.01), but decreased Glu contents of the rat hypothalamus (p < 0.01). Western blotting data indicate that JTP significantly up-regulated the levels of GAD-65 (p < 0.01), GAD-67 (p < 0.05), GAT-1 (p < 0.01), GAT-3 (p < 0.01), GABA-A (p < 0.01) and GABA-B (p < 0.01), while the level of GABA-T was down-regulated.

Conclusion: The results demonstrate that JTP possesses significant sedative effects on insomnia in rats, most probably through a mechanism involving GABA signal pathway.

Keywords: Jiaotai pill, Insomnia, GABA, Glutamate, Estazolam, GABA signal pathway