At 5 mg/kg, andrographolide promotes the expression of LC3 II and Beclin1 in the prefrontal cortex of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) mice and reduces p62 and p-mTOR levels, which indicates that it induces autophagy, which can improve mouse depression and inhibit inflammatory responses in the prefrontal cortex of mice and decreases the expression of proinflammatory mediators and cytokines (NO, COX-2, iNOS, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α), inhibition of NF-κB signalling (p-P65, p-IκBα) and NLRP3 inflammasome assembly (NLRP3, Asc, and Caspase-1) (Geng et al., 2019). Here, NLRP3 is linked to depressive disorder.