Ningdong Granule Upregulates the Striatal DA Transporter and Attenuates Stereotyped Behavior of Tourette Syndrome in Rats

Jijun Li; Yi Guo; Lin Zhao; Kexing Sun; Guangjun Xi; Zai-Wang Li

doi:10.1155/2020/2980705

Ningdong Granule Upregulates the Striatal DA Transporter and Attenuates Stereotyped Behavior of Tourette Syndrome in Rats

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Sep 12:2020:2980705. doi: 10.1155/2020/2980705. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jijun Li¹, Yi Guo², Lin Zhao³, Kexing Sun¹, Guangjun Xi⁴, Zai-Wang Li²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Integrative Medicine on Pediatrics, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China.
² Department of Neurology, Shenzhen People's Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, The First Affiiated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518020, China.
³ Department of Integrative Medicine on Pediatrics, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250021, China.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Wuxi People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi 214023, China.

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the possible mechanism of Ningdong granule (NDG) for the treatment of Tourette syndrome (TS). The rats with stereotyped behavior were established by microinjection with TS patients' sera; then, the model rats were divided into NDG and haloperidol (Hal) group, and the nonmedication model rats were regarded as treatment control (TS group). The stereotyped behavior of the rats was recorded, the level of dopamine (DA) in striatum, and the content of homovanillic acid (HVA) in sera were tested, and dopamine transporter (DAT) expression was measured in the study. The experimental results showed that NDG effectively inhibited the stereotyped behavior (P < 0.01), decreased the levels of DA in the striatum (P < 0.05), increased the content of sera HVA (P < 0.01), and enhanced the protein and mRNA expression of DAT in the striatum (P < 0.01). Additionally, the results also revealed Hal could improve the stereotyped behavior as well but had no remarkable influence on DAT expression and DA metabolism. In conclusion, NDG attenuates stereotyped behavior, and its mechanism of action might be associated with the upregulation of DAT expression to regulate DA metabolism in the brain.