Protein Phosphatase 2A Affects the Symptoms of Depressive Rats by Regulating Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinases/Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3β Signaling Pathway

As one of the world's more common mental disorders, the incidence of depression has increased yearly, seriously affecting the lives and health of many people. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is a protein that is enriched in the brain tissue, is the major serine/threonine phosphatase in the central nervous system, and plays a very important role in many aspects of cellular function. To explore the role of PP2A in the pathogenesis of depression in our study, we constructed the depressive disorder model, which involves the exposure of Sprague Dawley rats to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). The rats with depression were then treated with different concentrations (low, moderate, high) of okadaic acid (OA), and the optimal OA concentration (OOA) for the follow-up study was selected based on PP2A activity. The results showed that the use of higher OA concentrations corresponded with stronger inhibition of PP2A activity. Moreover, the behavioral test performed on the depression model rats showed that OOA group exhibited significant improvements in weight, as well as in their results in the sucrose preference test, open-field test, and Morris water maze test compared to the model group ( P < 0.05). Moreover, when compared with the model group, the amounts of NE and 5-HT increased significantly ( P < 0.05), and the expression levels of TH, ERK1, AKT1, as well as the phosphorylation of TH, ERK1, AKT1, and GSK-3 β , were observed to be increased in the OOA group ( P < 0.05). Furthermore, the content of CORT decreased significantly ( P < 0.05), and the expression levels of GSK-3 β were decreased in the OOA group ( P < 0.05). Thus, the potential mechanism of how OA ameliorates depression in model rats may be through the inhibition of PP2A activity, the increase in phosphorylation levels of AKT and GSK-3 β , and through the PP2A/AKT/GSK-3 β signal pathway; these components may serve as important intracellular targets for antidepressant drugs.