DUSP6 and major depressive disorder: Of note, the down-regulation of the gene DUSP6 in the prefrontal cortex mimics stress susceptibility by increasing ERK signaling and pyramidal neuron excitability in major depressive disorder [27], indicating that there may be complex regulatory relationships between the DUSP6 and ERK pathway in neurological diseases.In our work, the data showed that DUSP6 was down-regulated in vivo and in vitro, which was reversed by dioscin, and dioscin significantly decreased the expression levels of p-ERK/ERK.