Antidepressant-like activity of agomelatine in the mouse unpredictable chronic mild stressed model

摘要

Agomelatine, acts as an agonist of melatonergic MT1 and MT2 receptors and as an antagonist of 5-HT2C receptors (Millan et al., 2003). The present study was undertaken to investigate whether chronicagomelatine treatment would block unpredictable chronic mild stress-induced depression-like behavior in micecompared to fluoxetine and endogenous melatonergic agonist melatonin. Results:(1) Agomelatine, significantlyreversed the ucms-induced degradation in the coat state; the magnitude was comparable to melatonin andfluoxetine (2) All drugs tested blocked the stress-induced deficit in total number of grooming in splash test ,decreased the attack frequency in resident intruder test, reduced the immobility time in tail suspension test andforced swimming test (3) All drugs decreased enhanced levels of plasma acth, il-6 and Tnf-α levels in stressedmice. Results of this study support the assumption that agomelatine, with a novel mode of action and afavourable clinical safety and tolerability profile is effective as much as fluoxetine for the treatment ofdepression.