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Review
. 2022 Apr 13:13:879459.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.879459. eCollection 2022.

Chinese Herbal Medicine in the Treatment of Depression in Parkinson's Disease: From Molecules to Systems

Yi Zhang  1 , Xiaoman Xu  2
Affiliations
Review

Chinese Herbal Medicine in the Treatment of Depression in Parkinson's Disease: From Molecules to Systems

Yi Zhang et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Depression in PD (DPD) increases the disability rate and reduces the quality of life of PD patients and increases the caregiver burden. Although previous studies have explained the relationship between depression and PD through a variety of pathological mechanisms, whether depression is a precursor or an independent risk factor for PD remains unclear. Additionally, increasing evidence shows that conventional anti-PD drug therapy is not ideal for DPD. Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) prescriptions exhibit the characteristics of multi-target, multi-pathway, and multi-level treatment of DPD and may simultaneously improve the motor symptoms of PD patients through multiple mechanisms. However, the specific pharmacological mechanisms of these CHM prescriptions remain unelucidated. Here, we investigated the mechanisms of action of the active ingredients of single herbs predominantly used in CHM prescriptions for depression as well as the therapeutic effect of CHM prescriptions on DPD. This review may facilitate the design of new selective and effective treatment strategies for DPD.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; Traditional Chinese Medicine; active ingredient; depression; neuropharmacology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The limbic basal ganglia loop and depression.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The proportion of single herbal medicines included in Traditional Chinese Medicine prescriptions confirmed clinically in the treatment of depression in Parkinson’s disease (DPD).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Active ingredients of single herbal medicines used in treating depression in Parkinson’s disease (DPD). Dysfunction of the hypothalamic‒pituitary‒adrenal (HPA), activation of chronic inflammation, decrease of neurotrophic factors, and other mechanisms play a central role in the pathophysiology of DPD.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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