Effects of N-Acetylcysteine on Noise Exposure-Induced Oxidative Stress and Depressive- and Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Adult Male Mice

Introduction: depression and anxiety are the most common psychiatric disorders.these conditions widely occur in industrial societies and severely affect individuals’ lives.n-acetylcysteine (nac) is a mucolytic compound with antioxidant and anti-inflammatoryeffects. this study aimed to investigate the potential therapeutic effects of nac on chronicnoise-induced depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in mice.methods: fifty male balb/c mice were randomly divided into 5 groups, as follows: control,noise90 db, noise110 db, noise 90+nac, and noise 110+nac groups. animals in the noise groupswere exposed to 90 db 2 h/day and 110 db 2 h/day for 30 days. the nac groups received nac(325 mg/kg p.o.) 20 min after being exposed to noise. to evaluate depressive- and anxiety-likebehaviors, the examined mice were subjected to the open field test (oft), sucrose preferencetest (spt), tail suspension test (tst), and elevated plus maze (epm) tasks. at the end of thebehavioral tests, the study animals were sacrificed. accordingly, the levels of malondialdehyde(mda), total antioxidant capacity (tac), superoxide dismutase (sod), and glutathioneperoxidase (gpx) were determined in the hippocampus (hip) and the prefrontal cortex (pfc).results: the obtained results suggested that noise exposure would induce anxiety- anddepressive-like behaviors, being reversed by nac administration. moreover, chronicadministration of nac significantly increased antioxidant enzyme activities and reduced lipidperoxidation (mda levels) in the pfc and hip of noise-exposed mice.conclusion: our findings revealed that administrating nac would reduce the adverse effectsof noise on the brain and would exert anti-depressant and anxiolytic effects.