Journal Article

Therapeutic potential of AdipoRon in cognitive, depressive, and anxiety disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Hosseini, Leila, Dastgiri, Saeed, Gheibi, Fatemeh Sadat, Noorazar, Seyed Gholamreza, Shafiee-Kandjani, Ali Reza, Kalejahi, Parinaz

2026

Overview

Rising cases of cognitive disorders, depression, and anxiety underscore the need for new treatments, given the limited effectiveness and side effects of current options. AdipoRon targets adiponectin receptors and shows promise for protecting the brain, reducing inflammation, and supporting metabolism. This review examines preclinical data to determine whether AdipoRon consistently improves mood and cognitive function and to identify the underlying neurobiological pathways. We conducted a comprehensive literature search using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus, with no time limit, up to August 30, 2025. The quality of the selected studies was evaluated using the Collaborative Approach to Meta-Analysis and Review of Animal Studies (CAMARADES) checklists and the SYRCLE risk of bias tool. The studies found that AdipoRon treatment significantly reduced immobility in the forced swim test and had a significant anxiolytic effect in the open field test, especially in chronic unpredictable mild stress models. It also improved recognition memory in the novel object recognition test in models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Additionally, AdipoRon increased the expression of synaptic proteins, such as synaptophysin and PSD-95, in rodent models of these diseases. It also modulated the production of inflammatory cytokines. This review establishes AdipoRon’s capacity to resolve depressive, anxious, and cognitive deficits in rodent models. Because the meta-analyses were based on a limited number of studies and substantial heterogeneity was observed across studies, the findings should be interpreted with caution. However, further well-designed preclinical and clinical investigations are essential to confirm these findings.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adiponectin / AdipoRon / Alzheimer / Animal models / Animals / Anxiety / Anxiety disorders / Anxiety Disorders - drug therapy / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Care and treatment / Check lists / Cognition / Cognition & reasoning / Cognition - drug effects / Cognition disorders / Cognition Disorders - drug therapy / Cognitive ability / Cognitive impairment / Depression / Depression - drug therapy / Depressive Disorder - drug therapy / Diagnosis / Emotions / Fatty acid metabolism / Health aspects / Humans / Inflammation / Mental depression / Meta-analysis / Methods / Neurobiology / Neurology / Neurosciences / Open-field behavior / Pattern recognition / Physiological aspects / Piperidines - pharmacology / Piperidines - therapeutic use / Postsynaptic density proteins / Psychopharmacology / Review / Risk factors / Synaptophysin