Yokukansan, a traditional Japanese medicine, decreases head-twitch behaviors and serotonin 2A receptors in the prefrontal cortex of isolation-stressed mice.
Journal of ethnopharmacology May 26, 2015 Toshiyuki Ueki, Kazushige Mizoguchi, Takuji Yamaguchi et al. 31 citations
Chronic isolation stress in male mice increased head-twitch behaviors induced by a serotonin 2A receptor agonist, a model of hallucination-like behavior. Treatment with yokukansan, a traditional Japanese medicine, reduced this enhanced response. Isolation stress also increased the density of serotonin 2A receptors in the prefrontal cortex, and yokukansan treatment reversed this increase without affecting receptor affinity or mRNA levels. Among the seven constituent herbs, Bupleurum Root, Uncaria Hook, Japanese Angelica Root, and Glycyrrhiza each showed over 50% of yokukansan's effect in down-regulating receptor density, though these reductions were not statistically significant. The findings suggest yokukansan's effect on hallucination-like behaviors is mediated by down-regulation of serotonin 2A receptors in the prefrontal cortex.