Remimazolam alleviates sleep deprivation induced anxiety-like behaviors via regulating the STING pathway

Sleep loss becomes a major problem in modern life and increases the incidence of anxiety disorders. Benzodiazepines are the most commonly used anxiolytic medications. Remimazolam is an ultra-short-acting benzodiazepine, which has been shown to reduce the preoperative anxiety levels in patients. However, the effects on anxiety-like behaviors caused by chronic sleep deprivation (CSD) and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we found that administration of remimazolam can effectively alleviate anxiety-like behaviors induced by CSD. Furthermore, remimazolam can significantly preserve the sleep deprivation-induced deficits in neuronal calcium activity in CA1 of the hippocampus. In addition, stimulator of interferon genes (STING) was activated in CA1 after CSD, while remimazolam was sufficient to block the activation of the STING pathway. Further study showed that inhibiting the activation of STING also effectively alleviates the anxiety symptoms induced by CSD. Overall, our research offers new insight and a promising therapeutic agent for the anxiety disorders caused by sleep deprivation.