Fig. 3

Effects of NBQX (30 mg/kg) or rapamycin (20 mg/kg) on the immobility duration in forced swim test (FST) and Western blotting of pmTOR, pAkt, and pERK from hippocampus of echinacoside (30 mg/kg)-treated mice. The timeline exhibits the experimental procedure under administration of drugs (A). Statistically analysis showed that the effect of reduction of immobility duration in FST resulted from echinacoside treatment is inhibited when the mice were pretreated with NBQX and rapamycin (B) (ANOVA, F(5.54) = 4.501, p < 0.01; n = 10 per group; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared with saline-treated group with Tukey post hoc analysis). Western blot analysis of phosphorylation of mTOR, Akt, and ERK was performed (C). The densitometry analyses of the blot (normalized to β-actin) confirmed the increased activity of pmTOR (D), pAkt (E), and pERK (E) in the echinacoside administrated group. The increased expression of pmTOR (D), pAkt (E), and pERK (F) resulted from echinacoside treatment being blocked when mice were pretreated with NBQX. The increased expression of pmTOR (D) resulted from echinacoside treatment is blocked when mice were pretreated with rapamycin and the increased expression of pAkt (E) and pERK (F) resulted from echinacoside treatment is not blocked; n = 4 each group; * p < 0.05, Mann–Whitney U test; Values shown are mean ± SEM