Influence of the endocannabinoid system on the antidepressant activity of bupropion and moclobemide in the behavioural tests in mice

Background Though there are several classes of antidepressant drugs available on the pharmaceutical market, depression that affects globally over 320 million people is still undertreated. Scientists have made attempts to develop novel therapeutical strategies to maximize effectiveness of therapy and minimize undesired reactions. One of the ideas is use of either dual-action agents or combined administration of two substances that affect diverse neurotransmissions. Thus, we investigated whether the selected CB receptor ligands (oleamide, AM251, JWH133, and AM630) can have an impact on the activity of bupropion and moclobemide. Bupropion belongs to the dual acting drugs, whereas moclobemide is an inhibitor of monoamine oxidase. Methods The mice forced swim test and the tail suspension test were applied in order to determine the potential antidepressant-like activity, whereas the HPLC method was used in order to assess the brain concentrations of the tested antidepressants. Results An intraperitoneal injection of sub-effective doses of oleamide (5 mg/kg), AM251 (0.25 mg/kg), and AM630 (0.25 mg/kg) increased activity of bupropion (10 mg/kg) in both behavioural tests. Effects of moclobemide (1.5 mg/kg) were potentiated only by AM251. These results were not influenced by the hypo- or hyperlocomotion of animals. Conclusion The outcomes of the present study revealed that particularly activation or inhibition of the CB1 receptor function may augment the antidepressant activity of bupropion, whereas only inhibition of the CB1 receptor function manages to increase activity of moclobemide. Most probably, an interplay between CB receptor ligands and bupropion or moclobemide takes place at the cellular level.