Anxiolytic Properties of L- Theanine in Albino Rats

Anxiolytic Properties of L- Theanine in Albino Rats Lakshmi Girija, Kiruthika, Arvind, Zaved Ahmed khan ABSTRACT Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling of nervousness, uneasiness accompanied by stress for anticipated events. Stressful conditions can increase anxiety many folds showing physically noticeable symptoms and drastically affecting cognitive ability. Several anxiolytic drugs are in the market whose continuous consumption may lead to problems in the long run. It is reported that L-Theanine, anamino acid analogue that was discovered as a constituent ingreen tea, has anxiolytic abilities. As L-theanine is an analogue of glutamate and glutamine, it is absorbed in the small intestine after oral digestion. It can cross theblood–brain barrier, and thereby directly register pharmacological effects. As it is able to cross theblood–brain barrier, psychoactiveproperties are reported for theanine. Many studies have revealed about its potential ability to reduce mental and physical stress. It can give better cognition and improve mood and cognitive performance. Diazepam is acommercially ava ilable benzodiazepine drug, used to treat a wide range of conditions,   including anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, seizures etc. In this paper, the anxiolytic properties of L- theanine was studies in the albino rats taking diazepam as a positive drug for anxiety. Poly lactide nano particle encapsulate theanine was also tested to see if it could cross the blood brain barrier more rapidly to reduce anxiety. Theanine proved to be an efficient anxiolytic drug equivalent to diazepam as it improved the performances of anxiety induced rats to match with that of the rats that were non anxious. Keywords:Theanine, anxiety, Diazepam,stress. Introduction Nowadays anxiety or stress have became one of the common important problem faced by the world today. Owing to busy schedule and workloads people are not able to stay calm and so the demand for anti-anxiety drugs are gaining importance. Most commonly used drugs include alprazolam, clonazepam, diazepam and oxazepam. But all these drugs are not safe in the long run and hence there is a need for a good alternative. L-theanine, an aminoacid analogue of proteogenicaminoacids, L- glutamate and L- glutamine has found to have certain anti- stress effect properties. It was discovered as a constituent of green tea. Since it has multiple roles in the central and autonomous nervous system, it is receiving more attention. It was found that administration of L- theanine increases the alpha brain activity, depicting that L-theanine could render an alert and relaxed state [1,2].It was also found that stress can be reduced by inhibiting cortical neuron excitation [3].Stress can raise the blood pressure thereby activating the nervous system for producing large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that will elevate blood pressure [4,5], L-theanine was able to reduce the blood pressure Various studies in animals revealed that L-theanine had an effect on serotonin and dopamine concentrations in the brain, anxiolytic effect [6,7]. Kimura (2007) reported that intake of L- theanine have reduced heart rate and salivary immunoglobulin production. In hypertensive rats L-theanine have found role in reducing blood pressure [8,9].. Hence, it can be hypothesized that L-theanine attenuates the stress responses in the autonomic nervous system induced by both physically and psychologically stressful tasks. Diazepam is one of the common benzodiazepine drug used for reducing anxiety. It reacts with the chemicals in the brain that causes anxiety. It also used for alcohol withdrawal symptoms. With other medications, diazepam is used to treat seizures. It helps to control symptoms of anxiety, so the people feel less agitated and less tense. It have sedative and an anticonvulsant properties. It can help relieve to muscle spasm. Diazepam should be used for the shortest period of time possible as it will cause tolerance, dependence and also sometimes withdrawal symptoms in some people. In this paper, the effect of theanine was tested in the albino mice taking diazepam as a positive drug for anxiety and then testing of theanine encapsulated with nanoparticle was done to check whether the drug crossed the blood brain barrier. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All animals used for this experiment were approved by the ethical committee for animals of VIT University. Animals subjects All rats used in the experiment were female albino Wistar from VIT animal house. The animals were in the age group of 6-8 months. The separated groups were kept in separate cages with 3 rats in each cage and were fed with food pellets and purified water from VIT animal house facility. All rats were healthy and free of any physical deformity or possible symptoms of any infection. The mean weights of the rats were 270  ±10 grams. Grouping of the rats for the experiment: The rats were divided into 5 groups with 3 rats per group for the experimental design. The details of the groups are as follows. Groups (Three rats/group) Induction of anxiety: Restrain stress model was used to induce anxiety into rats. All rats except the negative control group were induced with anxiety continuously for 5 days. The rats were locked and immobilised in the restrain stress chamber inside a silent dark room for 1 h each day for 5 consecutive days to induce anxiety. No animals were injured or handled harshly in the process. Each group of rats were subjected to the process at the same time each day and were then caged together in their respective group cages. Administration of drug: The drug was administered orally through eleven G syringe. Drug of 10 mg/ Kg of body weight was dissolved in 10 mL of distilled water and were fed orally to the rats. Tests performed: Open field test and elevated plus maze test was performed for each rat in every group for 3 consecutive days and the performance readings were recorded for each rat and represented separately in the group performance table to be compared with other groups to determine the relative anxiety levels of different groups in the experimental model. Open field test: The rats were introduced one at a time into the centre of the open field setup that consisted of 16 squares and a total accessible area of 1.6 sq m. The ambiance was maintained silent and was well lit with lights for ensuring visibility. Each rat was allowed to spend 10 mins inside the setup and the total number of square movements, fecal boli and rearings were recorded for the entire period of time spent inside the setup. Elevated plus maze test: The rats were introduced one at a time into the centre of the elevated plus maze setup elevated to 50 cm above ground that had an open arm of length 60 cm and a closed arm of length 60 cm with the total accessible area of 2.4 sq m. The ambiance was maintained silent and was well lit with lights for ensuring visibility. Each rat was allowed to spend 5 mins inside the setup and the total number of open arm entries, closed arm entries, total time spent in open arm and total time spent in closed arm were recorded for the entire period of time spent inside the setup. Results: The observations of the open field test and elevated plus maze test for all the groups of experimental rats are as follows. Group details Open field test: Parameters tested in open field test were No. of squares crossed No. of fecal boli No. of rearings Table 1 to 5 show the raw data of observation for the 5 groups for the open field test. Table1: Group I observation for OFT Table 2: Group II observations for OFT Table 3 : Group III observations for OFT Table 4: Group IV observations for OFT Table 5: Group V observations for OFT Determining the level of anxiety: Number of squares crossed: The mean value of squares crossed by the rats in each group is depicted in fig 1. As expected rats with no induced anxiety were able to show high movement by crossing a mean of 62.4 squares in 10 mins and rats induced with anxiety but not administered with any anxiolytic drug showed the least movement by crossing a mean of only 14.6 squares in 10 mins. The group administered with theanine as the anxiolytic drug out preformed as compared to the group administered with diazepam by crossing a mean of 48.4 squares in 10 mins showing reduced level of anxiety. The nano particle formulation does not show significant improvement in the performance as compared to theanine administered alone. Number of fecal boli: Fig 2. Shows the anxiety level of the different groups having fecal boli as the parameter for measuring anxiety. Maximum number of fecal boli was observed in group II where the rats were induced with anxiety but was not administered with any drug. Non anxiety induced rats in group I had the least number of fecal boli recording of 2. Theanine seems to be effective than diazepam in this test. Fecal boli is reduced by a mean of 0.11 as compared to the rats administered with diazepam. Nano formulation administered rats show increased fecal boli behaviour as compared to rats administered with diazepam or theanine. Number of rearings: Mean number of rearing behaviour for the 5 groups are shown in fig 3. Group I rats that were expected to show the least number of rearings showed rearing behaviour more than the test groups. Group II rats showed the maximum mean number of rearings fo 32.2 in 10 mins in the open field setup. Theanine and nano particle formulation of theanine reduced the rearing behaviour as compared to diazepam proving their efficiency as anxiolytic drug. The effect of normal drug and nano particle formulation were almost equal and nano formulation seems to show no improvement in crossing the blood brain barriers. These results from open field test confirms that the restrain stress model is effective in inducing anxiety in rats and the test drug theanine performs better than diazepam that is now being commertially used to treat anxiety. Elevated plus maze test: The parameters tested in the elevated plus maze test were No. of entries to open arm No. of entries to closed arm Time spent in open arm Time spent in closed arm Tables 6- 10 show the raw data collected for each group of rats in the elevated plus maze test. Table 6: Group I observations for elevated plus maze test Table 7: Group II observations for elevated plus maze test Table 8: Group III observations for elevated plus maze test Table 9: Group IV observations for elevated plus maze test Table 10: Group V observations for elevated plus maze test Number of open arm entries: Mean number of open arm entries by the 5 groups of rats in elevated plus maze test are depicted in fig4. Group I rats with no induced anxiety showed the maximum mean open arm entries of 13.4 times in 5 mins. The least number of open arm entries were observed in group II rats that were induced with anxiety but not administered with any drug. Diazepam was more effective in reducing the anxiety as the mean open arm entry for rats administered with it was 11.5 as compared to only 9.1 and 9.0 for rats administered with theanine and nano formulation of theanine respectively. Number of closed arm entries: The mean number of closed arm entries for the groups of rats are shown in fig 5. Number of closed arm entries were recorded maximum for group I rats without anxiety, these rats were very active in entering both the arms yet they spent most of the time in open arm chamber. Group II rats had least closed arm entries but they tend to spend more time without movement inside the closed arm showing high level of anxiety. Mean number of closed arm entries for the rats administered with diazepam was found to be 5.4 and the mean closed arm entries for rats administered with theanine and its nano formulation were found to be 6.1 and 3.4 respectively making the observations inconclusive without its correlation with the time spent in the closed arm for each group. Total time spent in open arm: The mean time spent in the open arm by each group of rats in the elevated plus maze setup is shown in fig 6. Rats belonging to group II that were induced with anxiety but were not administered with any drug spent the least time in open arm proving increased level of anxiety. Rats with induced anxiety and administered with diazepam, theanine or nano formulation of theanine spent mean time of 2.96, 2.7 and 2.93 mins in the open arm respectively. These are higher than 2.5 mins of time spent by group I rats that were not induced with anxiety. This proves that level of diazepam and theanine administered were able to reduce anxiety and also improve the performance of the test rats more than the control group in this test. Total time spent in closed arm: Mean time spent by different groups of rats in the closed arm of elevated plus maze setup is given in fig7. Group II rats spent the mean maximum time of 3.76 mins in the closed arm showing maximum level of anxiety as they were not administered with any anxiolytic drug. Rats administered with diazepam spent the least time in the closed arm that was about a mean value of 2.03 mins. Theanine and nano particle formulation of theanine showed no variation with respect to this parameter as both the groups administered with either one of the drug spent an equal mean time of 2.3 mins in the closed chamber. These values are lower than the time spent by the non anxious rats in group I thus making it clear that the amount of diazepam and theanine used have not only been anxiolytic but also have improved performances of the rats in the test. Relative time spent in open arm: Relative time spent in open arm for each group of rats with respect to non anxious rats were calculated and depicted in fig 8. Time spent by the non anxious rats in group I was taken to be 100 % and the time spent by the other groups were plotted relative to the group I rats. Relative time spent by the group2 rats with anxiety and no administered drug was lowest as expected. Rats administered with diazepam, theanine or its nano formulation showed 18 %, 8% and 17% high relative time respectively as compared to the non anxious rats used as control, showing the effectiveness of the drug against anxiety. Relative time spent in open arm: Relative time spent in closed arm for each group of rats with respect to non drug administered rats in group2 were calculated and depicted in fig 9. Time spent by the rats in group II that were induced with anxiety but not administered with any drug was taken to be 100% and the time spent by other groups were plotted relative to this. As expected all the other groups of rats showed lower relative time in the closed arm proving lower level of anxiety than the control group II. Rats administered with diazepam spent the least relativ

What Is a Good Human Life and How Should It Be Lived? Essay -- Philoso

What is a good human life and how should it be lived? Introduction The ancient philosophers had put much emphasis on the constitution of the human life and the manner in which it should be lived. From Aristotle to Plato and Socrates, all these philosophers had different views concerning the manner in which people should live with themselves and with each other. The aim of this paper is to explore the views of these three philosophers and then analyze where they compare and contrast with each other. The Human Life According to the Plato Republic Through the Republic, Plato sought to relate the life of an individual to that of the society as a whole. According to him, people show similar characteristics, act in the same deeds, and exemplify the same virtues that a state does. This analogy implies that each individual is a complex whole but made up of several parts that are distinct and that have unique roles. According to Plato, the everyday life of a human being amply manifests this analogical fact. This comes out in situations where an individual is faced with a variety of choices in life. During such times, the said individual is likely to feel contrary impulses, simultaneously pulling toward different directions. The reason behind this is because there exist distinct elements, which are different from those of humans. The physical body of a human being was equated by Plato to buildings, land and other physical materials of a city. However, a human being has three souls, which correspond to the three classes of citizens who lived in the state. These souls play an important role in the successful actions of the individual as a whole. These souls include the rational soul, the spirited soul and the appetitive soul. The ration... ...em to agree that the surest way of living a good life for humans is through the possession of the reasoning will. Living a good life involves utilizing one’s unique capability of reasoning. Works Cited Abbot, E. (2009). Literature of the doctrine of a future life: or, A catalogue of works relating to the nature, origin, and destiny of the soul. The titles classified, and arranged chronologically, with notes, and indexes of authors and subjects. Michigan: The University of Michigan. Cooper, J. G. (2007). The life of Socrates: collected from the Memorabilia of Xenophon and th e Dialogues of Plato, and illustrated farther by Aristotle, Diodorus Siculus, ... and others. ... By John Gilbert Cooper, Jun. Esq. London: Oxford University Press. Witt, R. G. (3003). In the Footsteps of the Ancients: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni. Boston: BRILL.

Cycles in Biology †Synoptic Essay

A cycle can be defined by a series of repeated steps that produce an end product which is the same as the start product. There are many cycles in biology including cycles that occur inside organisms such as the cardiac cycle, calvin cycle and the krebs cycle. There are also biological cycles that occur around us in the outside world such as the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle. I have decided to focus my essay on the biological cycles that occur inside organisms. The cardiac cycle is vital in all organisms with a heart, to pump blood round the body. There are phases of the cardiac cycle; systole (contraction) and diastole (relaxation). The heart consists of 4 chambers, 2 being the atria at the top of the heart and the other 2 being the ventricles at the bottom of the heart. Systole occurs separately in the atria and ventricles and diastole occurs simultaneously in all 4 chambers. The cardiac cycle is controlled by electrical waves that spread throughout the heart. The blood flows into the heart straight into the atria via the vena cava and pulmonary vein. A wave of electrical activity is firstly spread from the Sino-atrial node which spreads across both atria, this causes the atria to contract which forces blood down into the ventricles through the atrioventricular valves. The atrioventricular septum prevents the wave crossing the ventricles. The wave passes to the atrioventricular node where it is passed down the septum down specialised fibres known as the bundle of His. This occurs after a short delay to allow all the blood to flow from the atria to the ventricles. This wave passes down the bundle of His to the Apex of the heart where the Ventricles contract upward, pumping blood out of the ventricles into the pulmonary artery and aorta through the semilunar valves. Here the blood is then passed round the body where it then returns to the heart and the process repeats.

Change Racial Tensions Since Obama’s Presidency - 1402 Words

Racial tensions are a prominent issue in today’s society. Barack Obama being the first elected African American president has led America to a cultural evolution. As our country grows in diversity everyday it is important for citizens to recognize the change in racial tensions across the nation. Racial tension has always existed, especially here in the South, but it has changed particularly during Obama’s presidency. Racial tensions have changed in both positive and negative ways that affect everyone in the United States. I will illustrate this by explaining the origins of racial tension, the positive changes of racial tension, and the negative changes of racial tension. Racial tensions have always been present in America and the origins†¦show more content†¦A positive aspect that has changed since Obama has become president is that there is more participation in politics from the election stand point by other races. This has been especially true by the African American community with a seventy percent increase of registered voters in the South since 1965. Although the African American vote often goes unnoticed they have influenced in electoral states in close elections and are often the deciding factor (McFayden, 8). According to the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans have swayed voting in major states such as California, Texas, and New York among other states. In these states Obama had received over ninety percent of all votes cast by African Americans in the 2008 and 2012 elections (McFayden, 8). Another positive outlook which has improved since Obama’s presidency, is that he has inspired people of other ethnicities to be successful in anything they do. Obama has made great strides by breaking racial barriers that America had put in place (Sojka, 78). His influential leadership shows that anyone of any race can obtain higher positions of power and reach for bigger goals. Coming from a single parent home Obama showed that you can overcome obstacles in early childhood, attend college, become a lawyer, senator, and a two term president. Barack Obama guaranteed the launch of a new era in American politics (Sojka, 79). He is the epitome of the American dream byShow MoreRelatedRegardless If Society Was Made Equal Or Not Do Cultural1589 Words   |  7 PagesRegardless if society was made equal or not do cultural tensions still exist in America today? Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, a poet, and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Poetry Fellowship wrote th e poem Skittles for Trayvon: A Diminishing Suite in Verse in 2017. The poem basically explains the Trayvon Martin incident in the representation of elements and nature. Trayvon Martin represents the singing boy who went to the supermarket to get teas and candies, and George ZimmermanRead MoreRacism in the United States787 Words   |  3 Pagesscientific theory, but a set of preconceived opinions they value the biological differences between humans, attributing superiority to some according to racial roots. Even in such ethnically diverse country as the United States, racism continues evident against people of different ethnic traits and skin color. According to Steinberg (Steinberg, 1995), racial discrimination has been the most important cause of inequality between whites and blacks in the U.S. Because of that, minorities in American societyRead MoreBarack Obam A Black Man From Kenya And A White Woman From Kansas1311 Words   |  6 Pagescredibility and support to be elected as a Illinois State Senator in 1997 and then a U.S Senator in 2004. In 2008, Obama ran for the Democratic Party presidential election. â€Å"The most serious threat to Obama’s campaign for the Democratic nomination came in 2008, when videos surfaced of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s long ­ time pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, making inflammatory statements about the U.S. government and race relations in America† (Austin 460). Reverend Jeremiah BrownRead MoreMichelle Obam A Life2601 Words   |  11 Pagesyears at Princeton, she realized that most African American had to face how they lived their blackness and they faced challenges from both their white professors and colleagues and other African Americans (Slevin 2015:77). She encounters a lot of racial incidents that led her to reflect on her blackness. This concept of looking-glass is very present in Michelle’s life, especially during her college years, because she focuses on how other people perceived who she is in comparison to how she perceivedRead MoreCOMM292 Case Studies23202 Words   |  93 Pagespresented his takeaways. Then Martin, who had been taking notes for the group copy, asked Onyealisi if he had anything to say. Onyealisi passed because he had no input, but he looked flustered. â€Å"Who’s leading the marketing case tonight?† he asked. â€Å"Well since none of us are marketing experts,† Cooper replied, â€Å"we’re just going to have to struggle through this together.† 7 For use only in the course Principles of Organizational Behaviour at University of British Columbia taught by Girish AnanthanarayanaRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesfrom a Global Perspective 175 Final Thoughts: Excelling at the Interview 175 Summary 177 Demonstrating Comprehension: Questions for Review 177 Key Terms 178 179 HRM Workshop DID YOU KNOW?: Training Expenditures 194 Organization Development 195 Change Is a Popular Topic 195 The Calm Waters Metaphor 195 The White-Water Rapids Metaphor 196 Linking Concepts to Practice: Discussion Questions 179 Developing Diagnostic and Analytical Skills 179 Case Application 7: Timing of the Job Offer 179 Working