Ameliorative effect of green coconut water on dexamethasoneinduced depression-like behaviors in Sprague Dawley rats

Depression is one of the major global neurodegenerative diseases. Despite the fact that a number of drugs andtherapies have been described and used in its treatment, the incidence of prevalence has unexpectedlyincreased with time. There is a current drive to discover new treatment modalities or agents for depression toalleviate the negative effects it has on self and also on the society. Numerous factors, including psychologicalstress, oxidative stress, monoamine deficiency, and neuroinflammation have been linked to depression andconsequently cause hyperactivation of the HPA-axis. Dexamethasone (DEX) is well known to inducedepression-like behaviors in both experimental and human subjects. DEX has been shown to cause a reductionin 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 toprovide remedy in oxidative stress and/or inflammatory-induced mediated diseases. Therefore, this studyinvestigated the antidepressant potential of GCW in ameliorating depression-like behaviors caused by DEXadministration in female Sprague Dawley rats. GCW exerts a substantial antidepressant effect as it was shownto increase hippocampal and prefrontal cortex tissue volume with reduction in neural degeneration whencompared with the induced and recovery groups. GCW also showed complementary increase serum levels ofmonoamine neurotransmitters (Norepinephrine, Dopamine and Serotonin). There were evident increase inimmobility time in the post treatment and recovery groups which were in contrast to the reduced immobility timein the induced group during FST and TST behavioral test evaluations. More importantly, GCW was shown toreduce malondialdehyde concentration and increased catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathioneperoxidase when compared with the induced group. Therefore, our study confirmed GCW as a potential naturaltherapeutic remedy with the capacity to eliminate the effect of oxidative stress induced by DEX administrationleading to cascade of events underlining depression.