The effects of Korean Red Ginseng on stress-related neurotransmitters and gene expression: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) is an effective anti-stress treatment. In this study, we investi-gated the therapeutic potential effects of KRG on relieving stress in a general population using tran-scriptome analysis.Methods: We conducted an 8-week clinical pilot study on 90 healthy men who reported stress. The study was completed by 43 participants in the KRG group and 44 participants in the placebo group. Partici-pants were randomized 1:1 to the KRG and placebo groups. We evaluated the stress by stress response inventory (SRI) at baseline and 8 weeks. The main outcomes were changes in the levels of neurotrans-mitters (NTs) and NT-related gene expression. NTs were analyzed using automated (GC) content, and levels of gene expression were measured by reads per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (RPKM).Results: The KRG group showed significantly preserved epinephrine decrease compared with placebo group at 8 weeks (changes in epinephrine, KRG vs. placebo;-1623.2 +/- 46101.5 vs.-35116.3 +/- 86288.2, p = 0012). Among subjects who higher SRI score, meaning stress increased compared to baseline, the KRG group showed a smaller decrease in serotonin than the placebo group (changes in serotonin, KRG vs. placebo;-2627.5 +/- 5859.1 vs,-8087.4 +/- 7162.4, p = 0.005) and a smaller increase in cortisol than the placebo group (changes in cortisol, KRG vs. placebo; 1912.7 +/- 10097.75 vs. 8046.2 +/- 8050.6 , p = 0.019) in subgroup analysis. Transcriptome findings indicated that KRG intake affects gene expression related with metabolism of choline, adrenalin, and monoamine.Conclusion: These findings suggest that KRG has beneficial effects on the amelioration of stress response in NTs, and this effect is more prominent in stressful situations. Further clinical studies are required to confirm the anti-stress effect of KRG.(c) 2023 The Korean Society of Ginseng. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study investigated the therapeutic potential effects of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) in relieving stress through transcriptome analysis. The results showed that KRG had beneficial effects on stress response, especially in high-stress situations.