Morinda officinalis oligosaccharides increase serotonin in the brain and ameliorate depression via promoting 5-hydroxytryptophan production in the gut microbiota
Open accessAbstract
Morinda officinalis oligosaccharides (MOO) are an oral drug approved in China for the treatment of depression in China. However, MOO is hardly absorbed so that their anti-depressant mechanism has not been elucidated. Here, we show that oral MOO acted on tryptophan → 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) → serotonin (5-HT) metabolic pathway in the gut microbiota. MOO could increase tryptophan hydroxylase levels in the gut microbiota which accelerated 5-HTP production from tryptophan; meanwhile, MOO inhibited 5-hydroxytryptophan decarboxylase activity, thus reduced 5-HT generation, and accumulated 5-HTP. The raised 5-HTP from the gut microbiota was absorbed to the blood, and then passed across the blood–brain barrier to improve 5-HT levels in the brain. Additionally, pentasaccharide, as one of the main components in MOO, exerted the significant anti-depressant effect through a mechanism identical to that of MOO. This study reveals for the first time that MOO can alleviate depression via increasing 5-HTP in the gut microbiota.
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Gut microbiota is capable of producing or stimulating the production of neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
“Studies have shown that gut microbiota is capable of producing or stimulating the production of neurotransmitters, including serotonin,33–35 dopamine,36 and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).37”
From Microbiota–gut–brain axis and its therapeutic applications in neurodegenerative diseases (2024) · cites this paper as [34]
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References 64 · Cited by 139
- Authors
- Zhang, Z.-W., Gao, C.-S., Zhang, H., Yang, J., Wang, Y.-P., Pan, L.-B., Yu, H., He, C.-Y., Luo, H.-B., Zhao, Z.-X., Zhou, X.-B., Wang, Y.-L., Fu, J., Han, P., Dong, Y.-H., Wang, G., Li, S., Wang, Y., Jiang, J.-D., & Zhong, W.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Capital Medical University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
- Hainan University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Song
- Wang, Yan
- Jiang, Jian-Dong
- Zhong, Wu
- Venue
- Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-08
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 3298-3312
- ISSN
- 2211-3835 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9366226
- OpenAlex
- W4214877028
- Cited by
- 139
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 27.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973290, 82173888)
- Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (2016-I2M-3-011, 2021-1-I2M-007, 2021-I2M-1-027, 2021-I2M-1-028)
- Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (7181007)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Medicinal Plant Extracts Effects
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Keywords
- depression, serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptophan, gut microbiota, tryptophan hydroxylase, 5-hydroxytryptophan decarboxylase, blood-brain barrier, pentasaccharide, gut-brain axis, antidepressant mechanism
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