PMID: 12770515May 29, 2003Paper

Effects of Hypericum extract on the acetylcholine release: a loose patch clamp approach

Pharmacological Research : the Official Journal of the Italian Pharmacological Society
Lamberto ReQuintilio Tomassetti

Abstract

The St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) extract (Hp) represents one of the most useful natural therapeutic agents in the treatment of moderate and mild depression. The antidepressant effects of Hp are different, by a molecular mechanism point of view, when compared to those of other antidepressant drugs and, we think, a further pharmacological characterization is needed. It is suggested that the neurochemical effects of Hp could be bind either to its activity on the uptake of some mediators in the central nervous system or to the inhibition of some enzymatic activity at the receptor level. The present study carried out with the loose patch clamp (LPC) in the mouse neuromuscular junction, indicates a potentiation of the acetylcholine (ACh) action at the mouse neuromuscular junction. The spontaneous release of ACh was unaffected by Hp indicating that neither presynaptic nor postsynaptic function are modified by Hp. Indeed, both the frequency and the amplitude of the miniature end-plate currents (mepcs) were unmodified by Hp. Furthermore, the mepcs decay time (tau), i.e. the apparent cholinergic channel life time, was significantly increased after Hp treatment. The other parameter affected was the amplitude of the evoked end-pl...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Sep 24, 2015·Annual Review of Psychology·Ara Norenzayan
Nov 19, 2014·BMC Bioinformatics·Yuh-Jyh HuShun-Ning You
Oct 18, 2005·The Medical Clinics of North America·Christopher P HolstegeR Brent Furbee
Jun 7, 2014·The International Journal of Psycho-analysis·Yariv Orgad
Jan 6, 2018·Reviews in the Neurosciences·Sita Sharan PatelSurendra Kumar Jain
Jun 19, 2012·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Rosana FerrariMaria Alice da Cruz Höfling

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