CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
Porsolt offers models in all areas of psychopharmacology, epilepsy, sleep-wake, and neurodegenerative disorders. We are uniquely placed to offer a full range of CNS efficacy and safety pharmacology assessments, from basic models and regulatory tests, through the evaluation of abuse and dependence liability and proconvulsant risk using EEG.
Alzheimer’s and diseases (AD and PD) usually appear later in life, typically in people older than 50 years of age.
AD is characterized by memory deficits and rarely by movement impairment, whereas PD is primarily a movement disorder accompanied, in some cases, by memory impairments.
AD | PD |
EARLY PHASE |
LATE PHASE |
Alzheimer’s disease |
Mild cognitive impairment No clear motor impairments |
Dementia in most of cases No clear motor impairments |
Parkinson’s disease |
Mild cognitive impairment Slight motor impairments |
Dementia in most of cases Marked motor impairments |
• Unilateral complete lesion of the nigro-striatal pathway
• Motor impairments for the paw contralateral to the lesion
• L-DOPA, gold standard treatment, partially improves motor deficit
> Suggested approach
- Neuroprotection: Treatments administered a few hours after lesion and/or chronically during 15 days.
- Improvement of motor symptoms: Treatments administered acutely on the testing day.
> Other avalaible tests:
- Screening: Evaluation of the number of contralateral rotations
- Side effects induced by repeated L-DOPA administrations: Evaluation of dyskinesias
- Lesion size induced by 6-OHDA: Evaluation of TH immunoreactivity
• Streptozotocin (STZ) - induced cognitive deficit.
> Suggested approach:
- Evaluation of motor coordination: Morris water maze / delayed alternation