Synergistic Effects of Piperine and Memantine on Reducing the Symptoms of Depression and BDNF Expression in Corticosterone Model of Depression in Amygdala and Hippocampus of Rat Brain

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder.There are some studies about anti-depressant effect of piperien. This study is about the synergistic effect of piperine and memantine on behavior improvement and BDNF gene expression in depression model in rat brain.

In this experimental study, Wistar rats were divided into four groups: Negative control which received no drug, Positive control that received only 20 mg/kg corticosterone i.p., group 3 which received corticosterone+piperine (10 mg/kg, i.p.), and group 4 that received corticosterone + piperine (10mg/kg) + memantine (3mg/kg). After three weeks, the forced swim test for depression, the Plus-Maze test for anxiety and Openfield test for locomotor activity assay were done. Data analysis was carried out by One-way ANOVA and Tukey's test. The study of BDNF gene expression was also performed using Real-time PCR.

The results of water swim test and plus-maze showed a significant difference between corticosterone+piperine+memantine group and corticosterone+piperine(P<0.05). The gene expression study revealed that increased expression of BDNF occurred in piperine+corticosterone group and piperine+ memantine+corticosterone group compared with coticosterone alone group and piperine+corticosterone+ memantine group compared with piperine+corticosterone group (P<0.05).

In current study, piperine and memantine alone and in combination diminished depression and anxiety that also caused increased BDNF expression.