Ketamine-sensitive assay for neuropsychiatric disorders

Newsletter # 78



Animal models


Several clinical trials have reported acute subanesthetic doses of ketamine as a fast acting and sustained treatment for resistant depression. Recently, intranasal ketamine has been approved by the FDA for treatment for the above indication.
In the preclinical setting, sensitive and reproducible behavioral screening paradigms need to be established since the ability of ketamine to affect the depressive-like behavior in rats and mice is not replicated consistently from one lab to the other.

Using the previously described combined procedure "marble burying-–locomotor activity" for the identification of antidepressant mimetics in mice (1) , Neurofit has shown a marked inhibition of marble burying by single low doses of ketamine that do not affect locomotor activity.
(1): European Journal of Pharmacology 547 (2006) 106–115



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

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