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Therapeutic approaches employing natural compounds and derivatives for treating bipolar disorder: emphasis on experimental models of the manic phase

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Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex psychiatric disease characterized by mood swings that include episodes of mania and depression. Given its cyclical nature, BD is especially hard to model; however, the standard practice has been to mimic manic episodes in animal models. Despite scientific advances, the pathophysiology of BD is not fully understood, and treatment remains limited. In the last years, natural products have emerged as potential neuroprotective agents for the treatment of psychiatric diseases. Thus, the aim of this review was to explore the therapeutic potential of natural compounds and derivatives against BD, taking into account preclinical and clinical studies. Reliable articles indexed in databases such as PubMed, Web of Science and Science Direct were used. In clinical studies, treatment with herbal plants extracts, omega-3, inositol, n-acetylcysteine and vitamin D has been associated with a clinical improvement in symptoms of mania and depression in BD patients. In animal models, it has been shown that red fruits extracts, curcumin, quercetin, gallic acid, alpha-lipoic acid and carvone can modulate many neurochemical pathways involved in the pathophysiology of manic episodes. Thus, this review appointed the advances in the consumption of natural compounds and derivatives as an important therapeutic strategy to mitigate the symptoms of BD.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Funding

We thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Sul. This study was also financed in part by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior- Brazil (CAPES—Finance code 001).

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VMR, LS, MSPS and KPL performed the literature research, review and wrote the manuscript. FMS and RMS analysed and reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree with the order of the presentation of the authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roselia Maria Spanevello.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants by any of the authors. All studies performed by the authors with animals and cited in this manuscript has been previously published in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research guidelines for the care and use of animals.

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Authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Recart, V.M., Spohr, L., Soares, M.S.P. et al. Therapeutic approaches employing natural compounds and derivatives for treating bipolar disorder: emphasis on experimental models of the manic phase. Metab Brain Dis 36, 1481–1499 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-021-00776-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-021-00776-7

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