Parkinson's Disease :

Newsletter # 77

Catalepsy model

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder featured by the loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra. The primary motor symptoms of patients with PD are muscular rigidity and akinesia-bradykinesia and resting tremor.

In rodents, the neuroleptic drug haloperidol blocks the central dopamine transmission and induces catalepsy characterized by muscular rigidity and behavioral immobility (akinesia). The above similarities makes Haloperidol-induced catalepsy an useful test system for the screening of compounds that could alleviate the motor symptoms of PD.
The degree of inhibition/reversion of haloperidol–induced catalepsy can be used to measure the potential effect of your new drugs on akinesia symptoms of PD. NEUROFIT has evaluated the effects of Levodopa (L-DOPA) and 8-(3-Chlorostyryl)caffeine (CSC) in this model.

  • Time course of Haloperidol-induced catalepsy mice.

    Treatment with CSC and L-DOPA markedly reduce haloperidol-induced catalepsy.
  • Significant reduction of the catalepsy time at the plateau

    is observed following the treatment of haloperidol-rats with CSC or L-DOPA during the stable phase (180-270min) can be observed.

NEUROFIT offers a range of validated in vitro and in vivo screening tests for psychiatry and neurology.

If you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact us, we will reply within few days. Custom protocol

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