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Published:
Jul 14, 2024DOI:
10.4314/br.v22i2.6Keywords:
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Main Article Content
Ameliorative effect of green coconut water on dexamethasoneinduced depression-like behaviors in Sprague Dawley rats
Abstract
Depression is one of the major global neurodegenerative diseases. Despite the fact that a number of drugs and
therapies have been described and used in its treatment, the incidence of prevalence has unexpectedly
increased with time. There is a current drive to discover new treatment modalities or agents for depression to
alleviate the negative effects it has on self and also on the society. Numerous factors, including psychological
stress, oxidative stress, monoamine deficiency, and neuroinflammation have been linked to depression and
consequently cause hyperactivation of the HPA-axis. Dexamethasone (DEX) is well known to induce
depression-like behaviors in both experimental and human subjects. DEX has been shown to cause a reduction
in neurogenesis and an increase in immobility time during forced swimming test (FST) and tail swimming test
(TST). Green coconut water (GCW) is a natural product, rich source of antioxidant and has been found to
provide remedy in oxidative stress and/or inflammatory-induced mediated diseases. Therefore, this study
investigated the antidepressant potential of GCW in ameliorating depression-like behaviors caused by DEX
administration in female Sprague Dawley rats. GCW exerts a substantial antidepressant effect as it was shown
to increase hippocampal and prefrontal cortex tissue volume with reduction in neural degeneration when
compared with the induced and recovery groups. GCW also showed complementary increase serum levels of
monoamine neurotransmitters (Norepinephrine, Dopamine and Serotonin). There were evident increase in
immobility time in the post treatment and recovery groups which were in contrast to the reduced immobility time
in the induced group during FST and TST behavioral test evaluations. More importantly, GCW was shown to
reduce malondialdehyde concentration and increased catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione
peroxidase when compared with the induced group. Therefore, our study confirmed GCW as a potential natural
therapeutic remedy with the capacity to eliminate the effect of oxidative stress induced by DEX administration
leading to cascade of events underlining depression.
