Jujuboside A Study On Spontaneous Activity And Mark3, And Rpgrip1 Gene Expression

Jujuboside A (JuA) is a main effective component of jujubogenin, extracted from the seed of Ziziphus jujuba Mill var spinosa (Bunge) Hu ex H F Chou (Ziziphus), which is widely used in treating symptoms of insomnia and anxiety in Chinese traditional herb. However, most previously published studies have only focused on the investigation of behavioral changes. Recent experimental results have suggested that a high dose of JuA could inhibit the hyperactivity of the hippocampal CA1 area induced by penicillin sodium. JuA had inhibitory effects on the Glu-mediated excitatory signal pathway in the hippocampus and hippocampal formation in vivo and in vitro. Those studies suggested that JuA might play a role as a inhibitor in the central nervous system, especially the hippocampus. However, they could not explain the functions of JuA on the hippocampus, and thus, the inhibitory effect of JuA on the hippocampus is still elusive.In the present study, the spontaneous activity of mice was monitored, and the protocol of the differential display polymerase chain reaction (DD-PCR) was adapted to screen for differentially-expressed genes modulated by JuA at the transcription level in the mouse hippocampus. So we would explain the partial molecular mechanism of JuA at the gene transcription level. It was the first time to use DD-PCR to investigate the molecular pharmacology of the effective component of Chinese traditional herb. The use of DD-PCR is universal in investigating molecular pharmacological mechanisms of the effective component of a Chinese traditional herb at the gene transcription level. It will be a new tool to investigate the molecular pharmacology of the effective component of Chinese traditional herb.The analysis of independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test suggested that JuA significantly decreased the total activity intensity of the mice at a dosage of 80 mg/kg (P<0.01), which indicated that JuA is one main effective component of semen Zizphi spinosae. Meanwhile, the results of differential expression in response to JuA by DD-PCR and confirmed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR suggested the genes Mark3 and Rpgrip1 were upregulated in the treated mouse hippocampus. No matter whether JuA can upregulate Mark3 and Rpgrip1 directly or indirectly, which suggest that there might be an essential link between the reduction of the spontaneous activity of mice and the upregulation of Mark3 and Rpgrip1.