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Pádua MS, Guil-Guerrero JL, Prates JAM, Lopes PA. Insights on the Use of Transgenic Mice Models in Alzheimer's Disease Research. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:2805. [PMID: 38474051 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25052805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, presents a significant global health challenge with no known cure to date. Central to our understanding of AD pathogenesis is the β-amyloid cascade hypothesis, which underlies drug research and discovery efforts. Despite extensive studies, no animal models of AD have completely validated this hypothesis. Effective AD models are essential for accurately replicating key pathological features of the disease, notably the formation of β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These pathological markers are primarily driven by mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilin 1 (PS1) genes in familial AD (FAD) and by tau protein mutations for the tangle pathology. Transgenic mice models have been instrumental in AD research, heavily relying on the overexpression of mutated APP genes to simulate disease conditions. However, these models do not entirely replicate the human condition of AD. This review aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the historical and ongoing research efforts in AD, particularly through the use of transgenic mice models. It is focused on the benefits gathered from these transgenic mice models in understanding β-amyloid toxicity and the broader biological underpinnings of AD. Additionally, the review critically assesses the application of these models in the preclinical testing of new therapeutic interventions, highlighting the gap between animal models and human clinical realities. This analysis underscores the need for refinement in AD research methodologies to bridge this gap and enhance the translational value of preclinical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mafalda Soares Pádua
- CIISA-Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
- Laboratório Associado para Ciência Animal e Veterinária (AL4AnimalS), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - José L Guil-Guerrero
- Departamento de Tecnología de Alimentos, Universidad de Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain
| | - José A M Prates
- CIISA-Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
- Laboratório Associado para Ciência Animal e Veterinária (AL4AnimalS), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Paula Alexandra Lopes
- CIISA-Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
- Laboratório Associado para Ciência Animal e Veterinária (AL4AnimalS), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal
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2
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Cho SY, Kim EW, Park SJ, Phillips BU, Jeong J, Kim H, Heath CJ, Kim D, Jang Y, López-Cruz L, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ, Lee DY, Kim E. Reconsidering repurposing: long-term metformin treatment impairs cognition in Alzheimer's model mice. Transl Psychiatry 2024; 14:34. [PMID: 38238285 PMCID: PMC10796941 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02755-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 01/04/2024] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Metformin, a primary anti-diabetic medication, has been anticipated to provide benefits for Alzheimer's disease (AD), also known as "type 3 diabetes". Nevertheless, some studies have demonstrated that metformin may trigger AD pathology and even elevate AD risk in humans. Despite this, limited research has elucidated the behavioral outcomes of metformin treatment, which would hold significant translational value. Thus, we aimed to perform thorough behavioral research on the prolonged administration of metformin to mice: We administered metformin (300 mg/kg/day) to transgenic 3xTg-AD and non-transgenic (NT) C57BL/6 mice over 1 and 2 years, respectively, and evaluated their behaviors across multiple domains via touchscreen operant chambers, including motivation, attention, memory, visual discrimination, and cognitive flexibility. We found metformin enhanced attention, inhibitory control, and associative learning in younger NT mice (≤16 months). However, chronic treatment led to impairments in memory retention and discrimination learning at older age. Furthermore, metformin caused learning and memory impairment and increased levels of AMPKα1-subunit, β-amyloid oligomers, plaques, phosphorylated tau, and GSK3β expression in AD mice. No changes in potential confounding factors on cognition, including levels of motivation, locomotion, appetite, body weight, blood glucose, and serum vitamin B12, were observed in metformin-treated AD mice. We also identified an enhanced amyloidogenic pathway in db/db mice, as well as in Neuro2a-APP695 cells and a decrease in synaptic markers, such as PSD-95 and synaptophysin in primary neurons, upon metformin treatment. Our findings collectively suggest that the repurposing of metformin should be carefully reconsidered when this drug is used for individuals with AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- So Yeon Cho
- Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
- Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory for Alzheimer's Molecular Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
- Metabolism-Dementia Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Eun Woo Kim
- Graduate School of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
- Department of Nursing, Seoyeong University, Gwangju, 61268, Republic of Korea
| | - Soo Jin Park
- Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- Research Institute for Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Benjamin U Phillips
- Department of Psychology, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK
| | - Jihyeon Jeong
- Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
- Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory for Alzheimer's Molecular Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
- Metabolism-Dementia Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyunjeong Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory for Alzheimer's Molecular Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
- Metabolism-Dementia Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Christopher J Heath
- School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
| | - Daehwan Kim
- Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Yurim Jang
- Interdisciplinary Program in Agricultural Genomics, Center for Food and Bioconvergence, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Laura López-Cruz
- School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, N6A 5K8, Canada
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, N6A 5C1, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, N6A 5K8, Canada
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, N6A 5C1, Canada
| | - Do Yup Lee
- Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- Research Institute for Agricultural and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- Interdisciplinary Program in Agricultural Genomics, Center for Food and Bioconvergence, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Eosu Kim
- Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea.
- Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory for Alzheimer's Molecular Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea.
- Metabolism-Dementia Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea.
- Graduate School of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea.
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3
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Watson MR, Traczewski N, Dunghana S, Boroujeni KB, Neumann A, Wen X, Womelsdorf T. A Multi-task Platform for Profiling Cognitive and Motivational Constructs in Humans and Nonhuman Primates. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.09.566422. [PMID: 38014107 PMCID: PMC10680597 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.09.566422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Background Understanding the neurobiological substrates of psychiatric disorders requires comprehensive evaluations of cognitive and motivational functions in preclinical research settings. The translational validity of such evaluations will be supported by (1) tasks with high construct validity that are engaging and easy to teach to human and nonhuman participants, (2) software that enables efficient switching between multiple tasks in single sessions, (3) software that supports tasks across a broad range of physical experimental setups, and (4) by platform architectures that are easily extendable and customizable to encourage future optimization and development. New Method We describe the Multi-task Universal Suite for Experiments ( M-USE ), a software platform designed to meet these requirements. It leverages the Unity video game engine and C# programming language to (1) support immersive and engaging tasks for humans and nonhuman primates, (2) allow experimenters or participants to switch between multiple tasks within-session, (3) generate builds that function across computers, tablets, and websites, and (4) is freely available online with documentation and tutorials for users and developers. M-USE includes a task library with seven pre-existing tasks assessing cognitive and motivational constructs of perception, attention, working memory, cognitive flexibility, motivational and affective self-control, relational long-term memory, and visuo-spatial problem solving. Results M-USE was used to test NHPs on up to six tasks per session, all available as part of the Task Library, and to extract performance metrics for all major cognitive and motivational constructs spanning the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) of the National Institutes of Mental Health. Comparison with Existing Methods Other experiment design and control systems exist, but do not provide the full range of features available in M-USE, including a pre-existing task library for cross-species assessments; the ability to switch seamlessly between tasks in individual sessions; cross-platform build capabilities; license-free availability; and its leveraging of video-engine capabilities used to gamify tasks. Conclusions The new multi-task platform facilitates cross-species translational research for understanding the neurobiological substrates of higher cognitive and motivational functions.
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Memar S, Jiang E, Prado VF, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ, Prado MAM. Open science and data sharing in cognitive neuroscience with MouseBytes and MouseBytes. Sci Data 2023; 10:210. [PMID: 37059739 PMCID: PMC10104860 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-023-02106-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Open access to rodent cognitive data has lagged behind the rapid generation of large open-access datasets in other areas of neuroscience, such as neuroimaging and genomics. One contributing factor has been the absence of uniform standardization in experiments and data output, an issue that has particularly plagued studies in animal models. Touchscreen-automated cognitive testing of animal models allows standardized outputs that are compatible with open-access sharing. Touchscreen datasets can be combined with different neuro-technologies such as fiber photometry, miniscopes, optogenetics, and MRI to evaluate the relationship between neural activity and behavior. Here we describe a platform that allows deposition of these data into an open-access repository. This platform, called MouseBytes, is a web-based repository that enables researchers to store, share, visualize, and analyze cognitive data. Here we present the architecture, structure, and the essential infrastructure behind MouseBytes. In addition, we describe MouseBytes+, a database that allows data from complementary neuro-technologies such as imaging and photometry to be easily integrated with behavioral data in MouseBytes to support multi-modal behavioral analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Memar
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Eric Jiang
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Vania F Prado
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Marco A M Prado
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
- Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada.
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5
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Sullivan M, Fernandez-Aranda F, Camacho-Barcia L, Harkin A, Macrì S, Mora-Maltas B, Jiménez-Murcia S, O'Leary A, Ottomana AM, Presta M, Slattery D, Scholtz S, Glennon JC. Insulin and Disorders of Behavioural Flexibility. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 150:105169. [PMID: 37059405 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105169] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2022] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
Behavioural inflexibility is a symptom of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Alzheimer's Disease, encompassing the maintenance of a behaviour even when no longer appropriate. Recent evidence suggests that insulin signalling has roles apart from its regulation of peripheral metabolism and mediates behaviourally-relevant central nervous system (CNS) functions including behavioural flexibility. Indeed, insulin resistance is reported to generate anxious, perseverative phenotypes in animal models, with the Type 2 diabetes medication metformin proving to be beneficial for disorders including Alzheimer's Disease. Structural and functional neuroimaging studies of Type 2 diabetes patients have highlighted aberrant connectivity in regions governing salience detection, attention, inhibition and memory. As currently available therapeutic strategies feature high rates of resistance, there is an urgent need to better understand the complex aetiology of behaviour and develop improved therapeutics. In this review, we explore the circuitry underlying behavioural flexibility, changes in Type 2 diabetes, the role of insulin in CNS outcomes and mechanisms of insulin involvement across disorders of behavioural inflexibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mairéad Sullivan
- Conway Institute of Biomedical and Biomolecular Research, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| | - Fernando Fernandez-Aranda
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain; Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviors Group, Neurosciences Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Lucía Camacho-Barcia
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain; Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviors Group, Neurosciences Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Andrew Harkin
- School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
| | - Simone Macrì
- Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
| | - Bernat Mora-Maltas
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain; Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviors Group, Neurosciences Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Susana Jiménez-Murcia
- Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain; Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviors Group, Neurosciences Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Aet O'Leary
- University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Angela Maria Ottomana
- Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy; Neuroscience Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy
| | - Martina Presta
- Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Jeffrey C Glennon
- Conway Institute of Biomedical and Biomolecular Research, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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6
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Something to Snack on: Can Dietary Modulators Boost Mind and Body? Nutrients 2023; 15:nu15061356. [PMID: 36986089 PMCID: PMC10056809 DOI: 10.3390/nu15061356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Revised: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
The last decades have shown that maintaining a healthy and balanced diet can support brain integrity and functionality, while an inadequate diet can compromise it. However, still little is known about the effects and utility of so-called healthy snacks or drinks and their immediate short-term effects on cognition and physical performance. Here, we prepared dietary modulators comprising the essential macronutrients at different ratios and a controlled balanced dietary modulator. We assessed, in healthy adult mice, the short-term effects of these modulators when consumed shortly prior to tests with different cognitive and physical demands. A high-fat dietary modulator sustained increased motivation compared to a carbohydrate-rich dietary modulator (p = 0.041) which had a diminishing effect on motivation (p = 0.018). In contrast, a high-carbohydrate modulator had an initial beneficial effect on cognitive flexibility (p = 0.031). No apparent effects of any of the dietary modulators were observed on physical exercise. There is increasing public demand for acute cognitive and motor function enhancers that can improve mental and intellectual performance in daily life, such as in the workplace, studies, or sports activities. Our findings suggest such enhancers should be tailored to the cognitive demand of the task undertaken, as different dietary modulators will have distinct effects when consumed shortly prior to the task.
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7
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Amyloid Beta Alters Prefrontal-dependent Functions Along with its Excitability and Synaptic Plasticity in Male Rats. Neuroscience 2022; 498:260-279. [PMID: 35839923 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2022] [Revised: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Prefrontal cortex (PFC)-related functions, such as working memory (WM) and cognitive flexibility (CF), are among the first to be altered at early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Likewise, transgenic AD models carrying different AD-related mutations, mostly linked to the overproduction of amyloid beta (Aβ) and other peptides, show premature behavioral and functional symptoms associated with PFC alterations. However, little is known about the effects of intracerebral or intra-PFC Aβ infusion on WM and CF, as well as on pyramidal cell excitability and plasticity. Thus, here we evaluated the effects of a single Aβ injection, directly into the PFC, or its intracerebroventricular (icv) application, on PFC-dependent behaviors and on the intrinsic and synaptic properties of layer V pyramidal neurons in PFC slices. We found that a single icv Aβ infusion reduced learning and performance of a delayed non-matching-to-sample WM task and prevented reversal learning in a matching-to-sample version of the task, several weeks after its infusion. The inhibition of WM performance was reproduced more potently by a single PFC Aβ infusion and was associated with Aβ accumulation. This behavioral disruption was related to increased layer V pyramidal cell firing, larger sag membrane potential, increased fast after-hyperpolarization and a failure to sustain synaptic long-term potentiation, even leading to long-term depression, at both the hippocampal-PFC pathway and intracortical synapses. These findings show that Aβ can affect PFC excitability and synaptic plasticity balance, damaging PFC-dependent functions, which could constitute the foundations of the early alterations in executive functions in AD patients.
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8
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Tamada H, Ikuta K, Makino Y, Joho D, Suzuki T, Kakeyama M, Matsumoto M. Impact of Intestinal Microbiota on Cognitive Flexibility by a Novel Touch Screen Operant System Task in Mice. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:882339. [PMID: 35812208 PMCID: PMC9259885 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.882339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to rapidly adapt to a constantly changing environment. It is impaired by aging as well as in various neurological diseases, including dementia and mild cognitive impairment. In rodents, although many behavioral test protocols have been reported to assess learning and memory dysfunction, few protocols address cognitive flexibility. In this study, we developed a novel cognitive flexibility test protocol using touch screen operant system. This test comprises a behavioral sequencing task, in which mice are required to discriminate between the “rewarded” and “never-rewarded” spots and shuttle between the two distantly positioned rewarded spots, and serial reversals, in which the diagonal spatial patterns of rewarded and never-rewarded spots were reversely changed repetitively. Using this test protocol, we demonstrated that dysbiosis treated using streptomycin induces a decline in cognitive flexibility, including perseveration and persistence. The relative abundances of Firmicutes and Bacteroides were lower and higher, respectively, in the streptomycin-treated mice with less cognitive flexibility than in the control mice. This is the first report to directly show that intestinal microbiota affects cognitive flexibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hazuki Tamada
- Dairy Science and Technology Institute, Kyodo Milk Industry Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kayo Ikuta
- Dairy Science and Technology Institute, Kyodo Milk Industry Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yusuke Makino
- Laboratory for Environmental Brain Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan
| | - Daisuke Joho
- Laboratory for Environmental Brain Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan
| | - Takeru Suzuki
- Laboratory for Environmental Brain Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan
| | - Masaki Kakeyama
- Laboratory for Environmental Brain Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan
- Research Institute for Environmental Medical Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan
- *Correspondence: Masaki Kakeyama,
| | - Mitsuharu Matsumoto
- Dairy Science and Technology Institute, Kyodo Milk Industry Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
- Research Institute for Environmental Medical Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan
- Mitsuharu Matsumoto,
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9
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Kljakic O, Janíčková H, Skirzewski M, Reichelt A, Memar S, El Mestikawy S, Li Y, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ, Prado VF, Prado MAM. Functional dissociation of behavioral effects from acetylcholine and glutamate released from cholinergic striatal interneurons. FASEB J 2022; 36:e22135. [PMID: 35032355 PMCID: PMC9303754 DOI: 10.1096/fj.202101425r] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2021] [Revised: 12/03/2021] [Accepted: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
In the striatum, cholinergic interneurons (CINs) have the ability to release both acetylcholine and glutamate, due to the expression of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) and the vesicular glutamate transporter 3 (VGLUT3). However, the relationship these neurotransmitters have in the regulation of behavior is not fully understood. Here we used reward‐based touchscreen tests in mice to assess the individual and combined contributions of acetylcholine/glutamate co‐transmission in behavior. We found that reduced levels of the VAChT from CINs negatively impacted dopamine signalling in response to reward, and disrupted complex responses in a sequential chain of events. In contrast, diminished VGLUT3 levels had somewhat opposite effects. When mutant mice were treated with haloperidol in a cue‐based task, the drug did not affect the performance of VAChT mutant mice, whereas VGLUT3 mutant mice were highly sensitive to haloperidol. In mice where both vesicular transporters were deleted from CINs, we observed altered reward‐evoked dopaminergic signalling and behavioral deficits that resemble, but were worse, than those in mice with specific loss of VAChT alone. These results demonstrate that the ability to secrete two different neurotransmitters allows CINs to exert complex modulation of a wide range of behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ornela Kljakic
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Helena Janíčková
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Miguel Skirzewski
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Amy Reichelt
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Sara Memar
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Salah El Mestikawy
- Department of Psychiatry, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,INSERM, CNRS, Neuroscience Paris Seine - Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (NPS - IBPS), Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Yulong Li
- State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Peking University School of Life Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Vania F Prado
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marco A M Prado
- Translational Neuroscience Group, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
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10
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Shepherd A, Zhang T, Hoffmann LB, Zeleznikow-Johnston AM, Churilov L, Hannan AJ, Burrows EL. A Preclinical Model of Computerized Cognitive Training: Touchscreen Cognitive Testing Enhances Cognition and Hippocampal Cellular Plasticity in Wildtype and Alzheimer's Disease Mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:766745. [PMID: 34938165 PMCID: PMC8685297 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.766745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
With the growing popularity of touchscreen cognitive testing in rodents, it is imperative to understand the fundamental effects exposure to this paradigm can have on the animals involved. In this study, we set out to assess hippocampal-dependant learning in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on two highly translatable touchscreen tasks – the Paired Associate Learning (PAL) task and the Trial Unique Non-Matching to Location (TUNL) task. Both of these tests are based on human tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and are sensitive to deficits in both mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. Mice were assessed for deficits in PAL at 9–12 months of age, then on TUNL at 8–11 and 13–16 months. No cognitive deficits were evident in APP/PS1 mice at any age, contrary to previous reports using maze-based learning and memory tasks. We hypothesized that daily and long-term touchscreen training may have inadvertently acted as a cognitive enhancer. When touchscreen-tested mice were assessed on the Morris water maze, they showed improved task acquisition compared to naïve APP/PS1 mice and wild-type (WT) littermate controls. In addition, we show that touchscreen-trained WT and APP/PS1 mice show increased cell proliferation and immature neuron numbers in the dentate gyrus compared to behaviorally naïve WT and APP/PS1 mice. This result indicates that the touchscreen testing paradigm could improve cognitive performance, and/or mask an impairment, in experimental mouse models. This touchscreen-induced cognitive enhancement may involve increased neurogenesis, and possibly other forms of cellular plasticity. This is the first study to show increased numbers of proliferating cells and immature neurons in the hippocampus following touchscreen testing, and that touchscreen training can improve cognitive performance in maze-based spatial navigation tasks. This potential for touchscreen testing to induce cognitive enhancement, or other phenotypic shifts, in preclinical models should be considered in study design. Furthermore, touchscreen-mediated cognitive enhancement could have therapeutic implications for cognitive disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Shepherd
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Tracy Zhang
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Lucas B Hoffmann
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Ariel M Zeleznikow-Johnston
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Leonid Churilov
- Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Anthony J Hannan
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.,Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Emma L Burrows
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
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11
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Arambula OG, Padovani FHP, Corrente JE, Schelp AB, Sanches FJ, Amorim RM, Schelp AO. Applicability of tactile memory examination as an option to visual- and verbal-based batteries. Dement Neuropsychol 2021; 15:373-380. [PMID: 34630926 PMCID: PMC8485637 DOI: 10.1590/1980-57642021dn15-030010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The validity and applicability of tactile battery tests for the diagnosis and medical follow-up of patients with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia syndromes do not have their usefulness well understood in clinical practice. While haptic abilities in older individuals receive less attention, in earlier stages of human life they are well focused on. There are even fewer studies on tactile memory, including episodic memory of demented individuals with or without sensorial limitations. The applicability of a new haptic memory battery was evaluated in patients with Alzheimer's disease with mild or moderate commitment. Objective The aim of this study is to apply a battery based on tactile perception, recognition, and recollection of everyday objects in patients with Alzheimer's disease, testing tactile delayed recall memory discrimination and late recognition to compare validated visual and verbal tests. Methods Tactile-, visual-, and verbal-based memory performance was registered in 21 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Results Except for tactile identification, it showed that there was a close relationship between the three sensory modalities of memory, with an apparent better performance of tactile incidental memory and recognition compared with the test with pictures. Conclusions The haptic evaluation of memory demonstrated applicability in the evaluation of memory dysfunction in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Further studies are needed to establish the sensibility and specificity of the proposed test that had a small sample size and many limitations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omar Gurrola Arambula
- Department of Neurology, Psychology and Psychiatry, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Flavia Helena Pereira Padovani
- Department of Neurology, Psychology and Psychiatry, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Jose Eduardo Corrente
- Statistical Department, Bioscience Institute, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Felipe Jacques Sanches
- Veterinary Clinical Department, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Ciência Animal, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Rogerio Martins Amorim
- Veterinary Clinical Department, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Ciência Animal, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Arthur Oscar Schelp
- Department of Neurology, Psychology and Psychiatry, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - Botucatu, SP, Brazil
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12
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Progressive impairments in executive function in the APP/PS1 model of Alzheimer's disease as measured by translatable touchscreen testing. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 108:58-71. [PMID: 34509856 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2019] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Executive function deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) occur early in disease progression and may be predictive of cognitive decline. However, no preclinical studies have identified deficits in rewarded executive function in the commonly used APPSwe/PS1∆E9 (APP/PS1) mouse model. To address this, we assessed 12-26 month old APP/PS1 mice on rewarded reversal and/or extinction tasks. 16-month-old, but not 13- or 26-month-old, APP/PS1 mice showed an attenuated rate of extinction. Reversal deficits were seen in 22-month-old, but not 13-month-old APP/PS1 animals. We then confirmed that impairments in reversal were unrelated to previously reported visual impairments in both AD mouse models and humans. Age, but not genotype, had a significant effect on markers of retinal health, indicating the deficits seen in APP/PS1 mice were directly related to cognition. This is the first characterisation of rewarded executive function in APP/PS1 mice, and has great potential to facilitate translation from preclinical models to the clinic.
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13
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Promoting and Optimizing the Use of 3D-Printed Objects in Spontaneous Recognition Memory Tasks in Rodents: A Method for Improving Rigor and Reproducibility. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0319-21.2021. [PMID: 34503967 PMCID: PMC8489023 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0319-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 08/28/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Spontaneous recognition memory tasks are widely used to assess cognitive function in rodents and have become commonplace in the characterization of rodent models of neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Leveraging an animal’s innate preference for novelty, these tasks use object exploration to capture the what, where and when components of recognition memory. Choosing and optimizing objects is a key feature when designing recognition memory tasks. Although the range of objects used in these tasks varies extensively across studies, object features can bias exploration, influence task difficulty and alter brain circuit recruitment. Here, we discuss the advantages of using 3D-printed objects in rodent spontaneous recognition memory tasks. We provide strategies for optimizing their design and usage, and offer a repository of tested, open-source designs for use with commonly used rodent species. The easy accessibility, low-cost, renewability and flexibility of 3D-printed open-source designs make this approach an important step toward improving rigor and reproducibility in rodent spontaneous recognition memory tasks.
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14
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Proulx É, Power SK, Oliver DK, Sargin D, McLaurin J, Lambe EK. Apamin Improves Prefrontal Nicotinic Impairment in Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Cereb Cortex 2021; 30:563-574. [PMID: 31188425 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Revised: 04/29/2019] [Accepted: 05/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Disruption of attention is an early and disabling symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The underlying cellular mechanisms are poorly understood and treatment options for patients are limited. These early attention deficits are evident in the TgCRND8 mouse, a well-established murine model of AD that recapitulates several features of the disease. Here, we report severe impairment of the nicotinic receptor-mediated excitation of prefrontal attentional circuitry in TgCRND8 mice relative to wild-type littermate controls. We demonstrate that this impairment can be remedied by apamin, a bee venom neurotoxin peptide that acts as a selective antagonist to the SK family of calcium-sensitive potassium channels. We probe this seeming upregulation of calcium-sensitive inhibition and find that the attenuated nicotinic firing rates in TgCRND8 attention circuits are mediated neither by greater cellular calcium signals nor by elevated SK channel expression. Instead, we find that TgCRND8 mice show enhanced functional coupling of nicotinic calcium signals to inhibition. This SK-mediated inhibition exerts a powerful negative feedback on nicotinic excitation, dampening attention-relevant signaling in the TgCRND8 brain. These mechanistic findings identify a new cellular target involved in the modulation of attention and a novel therapeutic target for early attention deficits in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- É Proulx
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A8
| | - S K Power
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A8
| | - D K Oliver
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A8
| | - D Sargin
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A8
| | - J McLaurin
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8.,Biological Sciences and Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4N 3M5
| | - E K Lambe
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A8.,Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1E2.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 1R8
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15
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van Heusden FC, Palacín I Bonsón S, Stiedl O, Smit AB, van Kesteren RE. Longitudinal Assessment of Working Memory Performance in the APPswe/PSEN1dE9 Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease Using an Automated Figure-8-Maze. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:655449. [PMID: 34054444 PMCID: PMC8155296 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.655449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 03/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, with a long preclinical and prodromal phase. To enable the study of disease mechanisms, AD has been modeled in many transgenic animal lines and cognitive functioning has been tested using several widely used behavioral tasks. These tasks, however, are not always suited for repeated longitudinal testing and are often associated with acute stress such as animal transfer, handling, novelty, or stress related to the task itself. This makes it challenging to relate cognitive dysfunction in animal models to cognitive decline observed in AD patients. Here, we designed an automated figure-8-maze (F8M) to test mice in a delayed alternation task (DAT) in a longitudinal manner. Mice were rewarded when they entered alternate sides of the maze on subsequent trials. Automation as well as connection of the F8M set-up with a home cage reduces experimenter interference and minimizes acute stress, thus making it suitable for longitudinal testing and facilitating clinical translation. In the present study, we monitored cognitive functioning of 2-month-old APPswe/PSEN1dE9 (APP/PS1) mice over a period of 4 months. The percentage of correct responses in the DAT did not differ between wild-type and transgenic mice from 2 to 6 months of age. However, 6-month-old mice displayed an increase in the number of consecutive incorrect responses. These results demonstrate the feasibility of longitudinal testing using an automated F8M and suggest that APP/PS1 mice are not impaired at delayed spatial alternation until 6 months of age under the current experimental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fran C van Heusden
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Sara Palacín I Bonsón
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Oliver Stiedl
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - August B Smit
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Ronald E van Kesteren
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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16
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Palmer D, Dumont JR, Dexter TD, Prado MAM, Finger E, Bussey TJ, Saksida LM. Touchscreen cognitive testing: Cross-species translation and co-clinical trials in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2021; 182:107443. [PMID: 33895351 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2020] [Revised: 02/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Translating results from pre-clinical animal studies to successful human clinical trials in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease presents a significant challenge. While this issue is clearly multifaceted, the lack of reproducibility and poor translational validity of many paradigms used to assess cognition in animal models are central contributors to this challenge. Computer-automated cognitive test batteries have the potential to substantially improve translation between pre-clinical studies and clinical trials by increasing both reproducibility and translational validity. Given the structured nature of data output, computer-automated tests also lend themselves to increased data sharing and other open science good practices. Over the past two decades, computer automated, touchscreen-based cognitive testing methods have been developed for non-human primate and rodent models. These automated methods lend themselves to increased standardization, hence reproducibility, and have become increasingly important for the elucidation of the neurobiological basis of cognition in animal models. More recently, there have been increased efforts to use these methods to enhance translational validity by developing task batteries that are nearly identical across different species via forward (i.e., translating animal tasks to humans) and reverse (i.e., translating human tasks to animals) translation. An additional benefit of the touchscreen approach is that a cross-species cognitive test battery makes it possible to implement co-clinical trials-an approach developed initially in cancer research-for novel treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. Co-clinical trials bring together pre-clinical and early clinical studies, which facilitates testing of novel treatments in mouse models with underlying genetic or other changes, and can help to stratify patients on the basis of genetic, molecular, or cognitive criteria. This approach can help to determine which patients should be enrolled in specific clinical trials and can facilitate repositioning and/or repurposing of previously approved drugs. This has the potential to mitigate the resources required to study treatment responses in large numbers of human patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Palmer
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Julie R Dumont
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tyler D Dexter
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marco A M Prado
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Finger
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Lawson Health Research Institute, Ontario, Canada; Parkwood Institute, St. Josephs Health Care, Ontario, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
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17
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Thelen M, Brown-Borg HM. Does Diet Have a Role in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease? Front Aging Neurosci 2020; 12:617071. [PMID: 33424583 PMCID: PMC7785773 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.617071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The aging process causes many changes to the brain and is a major risk factor for the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Despite an already vast amount of research on AD, a greater understanding of the disease's pathology and therapeutic options are desperately needed. One important distinction that is also in need of further study is the ability to distinguish changes to the brain observed in early stages of AD vs. changes that occur with normal aging. Current FDA-approved therapeutic options for AD patients have proven to be ineffective and indicate the need for alternative therapies. Aging interventions including alterations in diet (such as caloric restriction, fasting, or methionine restriction) have been shown to be effective in mediating increased health and lifespan in mice and other model organisms. Because aging is the greatest risk factor for the development of neurodegenerative diseases, certain dietary interventions should be explored as they have the potential to act as a future treatment option for AD patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mitchell Thelen
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, ND, United States
| | - Holly M Brown-Borg
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, ND, United States
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18
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Wittkowski J, Fritz RG, Meier M, Schmidtke D. Conditioning learning in an attentional task relates to age and ventricular expansion in a nonhuman primate (Microcebus murinus). Behav Brain Res 2020; 399:113053. [PMID: 33279643 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.113053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2020] [Revised: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 11/25/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
The grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) is a promising nonhuman primate model for brain ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. Age-related cognitive decline in this model is well described, however, data on possible relations between attention and age, as they are known from humans, are missing. We tested 10 mouse lemurs in a touchscreen-based version of the 5-choice-serial-reaction-time-task (5CSRTT) on visuo-spatial attention: subjects had to interact with a briefly presented stimulus occurring unpredictably in one out of five locations on the touchscreen. Animals were trained to an 80 % performance at a four seconds stimulus presentation duration (SPD) and subsequently challenged by a SPD of two seconds. Additionally, ventricular expansion was assessed using structural magnetic resonance imaging. Trials to the 80 % criterion at four seconds SPD correlated significantly with age and with ventricular expansion, especially around the occipital lobe. Once criterion performance was reached, two seconds challenge performance was independent of age. In four subjects that were additionally challenged with 1.5, 1.0, 0.8, or 0.6 s SPDs or variable delays preceding stimulus presentation, performance linearly declined with decreasing SPD, i.e. increasing attentional demand. In conclusion, this is the first report of 5CSRTT data in mouse lemurs and demonstrates the general applicability of this task of visuo-spatial attention to this nonhuman primate model. Results further demonstrate age-related deficits in learning during acquisition of the 5CSRTT and suggest that both may be linked through age-related atrophy of occipital structures and a resulting deficit in central visual processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Wittkowski
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
| | - Rebecca G Fritz
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany
| | - Martin Meier
- ZTL-Imaging, Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Daniel Schmidtke
- Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany
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19
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Shultz SR, McDonald SJ, Corrigan F, Semple BD, Salberg S, Zamani A, Jones NC, Mychasiuk R. Clinical Relevance of Behavior Testing in Animal Models of Traumatic Brain Injury. J Neurotrauma 2020; 37:2381-2400. [DOI: 10.1089/neu.2018.6149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Sandy R. Shultz
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Stuart J. McDonald
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Microbiology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Frances Corrigan
- Department of Anatomy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Bridgette D. Semple
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Sabrina Salberg
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Akram Zamani
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Nigel C. Jones
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Richelle Mychasiuk
- Department of Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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20
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Saifullah MAB, Komine O, Dong Y, Fukumoto K, Sobue A, Endo F, Saito T, Saido TC, Yamanaka K, Mizoguchi H. Touchscreen-based location discrimination and paired associate learning tasks detect cognitive impairment at an early stage in an App knock-in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Mol Brain 2020; 13:147. [PMID: 33183323 PMCID: PMC7664057 DOI: 10.1186/s13041-020-00690-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline with accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles that usually begins 15–30 years before clinical diagnosis. Rodent models that recapitulate aggressive Aβ and/or the pathology of neurofibrillary tangles are essential for AD research. Accordingly, non-invasive early detection systems in these animal models are required to evaluate the phenotypic changes, elucidate the mechanism of disease progression, and facilitate development of novel therapeutic approaches. Although many behavioral tests efficiently reveal cognitive impairments at the later stage of the disease in AD models, it has been challenging to detect such impairments at the early stage. To address this issue, we subjected 4–6-month-old male AppNL−G−F/NL−G−F knock-in (App-KI) mice to touchscreen-based location discrimination (LD), different object–location paired-associate learning (dPAL), and reversal learning tests, and compared the results with those of the classical Morris water maze test. These tests are mainly dependent on the brain regions prone to Aβ accumulation at the earliest stages of the disease. At 4–6 months, considered to represent the early stage of disease when mice exhibit initial deposition of Aβ and slight gliosis, the classical Morris water maze test revealed no difference between groups, whereas touchscreen-based LD and dPAL tasks revealed significant impairments in task performance. Our report is the first to confirm that a systematic touchscreen-based behavioral test battery can sensitively detect the early stage of cognitive decline in an AD-linked App-KI mouse model. This system could be applied in future translational research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Md Ali Bin Saifullah
- Research Center for Next-Generation Drug Development, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan
| | - Okiru Komine
- Department of Neuroscience and Pathobiology, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan
| | - Yutao Dong
- Research Center for Next-Generation Drug Development, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan.,Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Hospital Pharmacy, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, 466-8560, Japan
| | - Kazuya Fukumoto
- Research Center for Next-Generation Drug Development, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan
| | - Akira Sobue
- Department of Neuroscience and Pathobiology, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan
| | - Fumito Endo
- Department of Neuroscience and Pathobiology, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan
| | - Takashi Saito
- Department of Neuroscience and Pathobiology, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan.,Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.,Department of Neurocognitive Science, Institute of Brain Science, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Aichi, 467-8601, Japan
| | - Takaomi C Saido
- Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan
| | - Koji Yamanaka
- Department of Neuroscience and Pathobiology, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan
| | - Hiroyuki Mizoguchi
- Research Center for Next-Generation Drug Development, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan. .,Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Hospital Pharmacy, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, 466-8560, Japan.
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21
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Sullivan JA, Dumont JR, Memar S, Skirzewski M, Wan J, Mofrad MH, Ansari HZ, Li Y, Muller L, Prado VF, Prado MAM, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ. New frontiers in translational research: Touchscreens, open science, and the mouse translational research accelerator platform. GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR 2020; 20:e12705. [PMID: 33009724 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2020] [Revised: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Many neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases and other brain disorders are accompanied by impairments in high-level cognitive functions including memory, attention, motivation, and decision-making. Despite several decades of extensive research, neuroscience is little closer to discovering new treatments. Key impediments include the absence of validated and robust cognitive assessment tools for facilitating translation from animal models to humans. In this review, we describe a state-of-the-art platform poised to overcome these impediments and improve the success of translational research, the Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform (MouseTRAP), which is centered on the touchscreen cognitive testing system for rodents. It integrates touchscreen-based tests of high-level cognitive assessment with state-of-the art neurotechnology to record and manipulate molecular and circuit level activity in vivo in animal models during human-relevant cognitive performance. The platform also is integrated with two Open Science platforms designed to facilitate knowledge and data-sharing practices within the rodent touchscreen community, touchscreencognition.org and mousebytes.ca. Touchscreencognition.org includes the Wall, showcasing touchscreen news and publications, the Forum, for community discussion, and Training, which includes courses, videos, SOPs, and symposia. To get started, interested researchers simply create user accounts. We describe the origins of the touchscreen testing system, the novel lines of research it has facilitated, and its increasingly widespread use in translational research, which is attributable in part to knowledge-sharing efforts over the past decade. We then identify the unique features of MouseTRAP that stand to potentially revolutionize translational research, and describe new initiatives to partner with similar platforms such as McGill's M3 platform (m3platform.org).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline A Sullivan
- Department of Philosophy, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Rotman Institute of Philosophy, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Julie R Dumont
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Sara Memar
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Miguel Skirzewski
- BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jinxia Wan
- Division of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Peking University School of Life Sciences, Beijing, China.,PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China
| | - Maryam H Mofrad
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Yulong Li
- Division of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Peking University School of Life Sciences, Beijing, China.,PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.,Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Lyle Muller
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Vania F Prado
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marco A M Prado
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,BrainsCAN, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
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22
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Van den Broeck L, Sierksma A, Hansquine P, Thonnard D, Callaerts-Vegh Z, D'Hooge R. Comparison between touchscreen operant chambers and water maze to detect early prefrontal dysfunction in mice. GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR 2020; 20:e12695. [PMID: 32812350 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Revised: 08/12/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The relative lack of sensitive and clinically valid tests of rodent behavior might be one of the reasons for the limited success of the clinical translation of preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) research findings. There is a general interest in innovative behavioral methodology, and protocols have been proposed for touchscreen operant chambers that might be superior to existing cognitive assessment methods. We assessed and analyzed touchscreen performance in several novel ways to examine the possible occurrence of early signs of prefrontal (PFC) functional decline in the APP/PS1 mouse model of AD. Touchscreen learning performance was compared between APP/PS1-21 mice and wildtype littermates on a C57BL/6J background at 3, 6 and 12 months of age in parallel to the assessment of spatial learning, memory and cognitive flexibility in the Morris water maze (MWM). We found that older mice generally needed more training sessions to complete the touchscreen protocol than younger ones. Older mice also displayed defects in MWM working memory performance, but touchscreen protocols detected functional changes beginning at 3 months of age. Histological changes in PFC of APP/PS1 mice indeed occurred as early as 3 months. Our results suggest that touchscreen operant protocols are more sensitive to PFC dysfunction, which is of relevance to the use of these tasks and devices in preclinical AD research and experimental pharmacology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lore Van den Broeck
- Laboratory of Biological Psychology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium
| | - Annerieke Sierksma
- Laboratory for the Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pierre Hansquine
- Laboratory of Biological Psychology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium
| | - David Thonnard
- Laboratory of Biological Psychology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Rudi D'Hooge
- Laboratory of Biological Psychology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium
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23
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Mosser CA, Haqqee Z, Nieto-Posadas A, Murai KK, Stifani S, Williams S, Brandon MP. The McGill-Mouse-Miniscope platform: A standardized approach for high-throughput imaging of neuronal dynamics during behavior. GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR 2020; 20:e12686. [PMID: 32691490 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2020] [Revised: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 07/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the rules that govern neuronal dynamics throughout the brain to subserve behavior and cognition remains one of the biggest challenges in neuroscience research. Recent technical advances enable the recording of increasingly larger neuronal populations to produce increasingly more sophisticated datasets. Despite bold and important open-science and data-sharing policies, these datasets tend to include unique data acquisition methods, behaviors, and file structures. Discrepancies between experimental protocols present key challenges in comparing data between laboratories and across different brain regions and species. Here, we discuss our recent efforts to create a standardized and high-throughput research platform to address these issues. The McGill-Mouse-Miniscope (M3) platform is an initiative to combine miniscope calcium imaging with standardized touchscreen-based animal behavioral testing. The goal is to curate an open-source and standardized framework for acquiring, analyzing, and accessing high-quality data of the neuronal dynamics that underly cognition throughout the brain in mice, marmosets, and models of disease. We end with a discussion of future developments and a call for users to adopt this standardized approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Coralie-Anne Mosser
- Psychiatry Department, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Zeeshan Haqqee
- Psychiatry Department, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Andrés Nieto-Posadas
- Psychiatry Department, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Keith K Murai
- Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Stefano Stifani
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Sylvain Williams
- Psychiatry Department, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Mark P Brandon
- Psychiatry Department, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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24
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Buscher N, Ojeda A, Francoeur M, Hulyalkar S, Claros C, Tang T, Terry A, Gupta A, Fakhraei L, Ramanathan DS. Open-source raspberry Pi-based operant box for translational behavioral testing in rodents. J Neurosci Methods 2020; 342:108761. [PMID: 32479970 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2019] [Revised: 05/01/2020] [Accepted: 05/03/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Rodents have been used for decades to probe neural circuits involved in behavior. Increasingly, attempts have been developed to standardize training paradigms across labs; and to use visual/auditory paradigms that can be also tested in humans. Commercially available systems are expensive and thus do not scale easily, and are not optimized for electrophysiology. NEW METHOD Using the rich open-source technology built around Raspberry Pi, we were able to develop an inexpensive (<$1000) visual-screen based operant chamber with electrophysiological and optogenetic compatibility. The chamber is operated within MATLAB/Simulink, a commonly used scientific programming language allowing for rapid customization. RESULTS Here, we describe and provide all relevant details needed to develop and produce these chambers, and show examples of behavior and electrophysiology data collected using these chambers. We also include all of the tools needed to allow readers to build and develop their own boxes (CAD models for 3D printing and laser-cutting; PCB-board design; all bill of materials for required parts and supplies, and some examples of Simulink models to operate the boxes). COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS The new boxes are far more cost-effective than commercially available environments and allow for the combination of automated behavioral testing with electrophysiological read-outs with high temporal precision. CONCLUSION These open-source boxes can be used for labs interested in developing high-throughput visual/auditory behavioral assays for ∼ 10th the cost of commercial systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Buscher
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - A Ojeda
- Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States; Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engin., UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - M Francoeur
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - S Hulyalkar
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - C Claros
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - T Tang
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - A Terry
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - A Gupta
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - L Fakhraei
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - D S Ramanathan
- Mental Health Service, VA San Diego Healthcare Syst., San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States.
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25
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Lee JH, Cho SY, Kim E. Translational cognitive neuroscience of dementia with touchscreen operant chambers. GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR 2020; 20:e12664. [PMID: 32374080 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Translational cognitive neuroscience of dementia involves mainly two areas: the validation of newly developed dementia animal models and the preclinical assessment of novel drug candidates in such model animals. To validate new animal models, a multidomain panel (battery) approach is essential in that dementia is, by definition, not merely a memory disorder but rather a multidomain cognitive/behavior disorder: animal modeling with a certain type of dementia would develop cognitive impairments in multiple (two at minimum) domains in a specific order according to unique spreading patterns of its neuropathology. In new drug development, the availability of highly sensitive tools assessing animal cognition is crucial to the detection of cognitive decline at the earliest stage of the disease, which may be an optimal time point to test a drug candidate. Using interspecies translatable (analogous) cognitive tasks would also be necessary to successfully predict the efficacy of drug candidates in subsequent clinical trials. Currently, this translational prediction is seriously limited given discrepancies in behavioral assessment methods between animals and humans in the preclinical and clinical trials, respectively. Since neurodegenerative diseases are often accompanied by not only cognitive but also affective and movement disorders, simultaneous assessment of task-relevant locomotor behavior and motivation is also important to rule out the effects of potential confounders. The touchscreen operant platform may satisfy these needs by offering several advantages over conventional methodology. In this review, we discuss the touchscreen operant chamber system and highlight some of its qualities as a promising and desirable tool for translational research of dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji Han Lee
- Department of Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - So Yeon Cho
- Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Brain Korea 21 Plus Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Eosu Kim
- Department of Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.,Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Brain Korea 21 Plus Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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26
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Therapeutic Effects of Apamin as a Bee Venom Component for Non-Neoplastic Disease. Toxins (Basel) 2020; 12:toxins12030195. [PMID: 32204567 PMCID: PMC7150898 DOI: 10.3390/toxins12030195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2020] [Revised: 03/15/2020] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Bee venom is a natural toxin produced by honeybees and plays an important role in defending bee colonies. Bee venom has several kinds of peptides, including melittin, apamin, adolapamine, and mast cell degranulation peptides. Apamin accounts for about 2%-3% dry weight of bee venom and is a peptide neurotoxin that contains 18 amino acid residues that are tightly crosslinked by two disulfide bonds. It is well known for its pharmacological functions, which irreversibly block Ca2+-activated K+ (SK) channels. Apamin regulates gene expression in various signal transduction pathways involved in cell development. The aim of this study was to review the current understanding of apamin in the treatment of apoptosis, fibrosis, and central nervous system diseases, which are the pathological processes of various diseases. Apamin's potential therapeutic and pharmacological applications are also discussed.
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27
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Ayabe T, Ohya R, Ano Y. β-lactolin, a whey-derived glycine-threonine-tryptophan-tyrosine lactotetrapeptide, improves prefrontal cortex-associated reversal learning in mice. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 2020; 84:1039-1046. [PMID: 31928148 DOI: 10.1080/09168451.2020.1714424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Dementia and cognitive decline have become worldwide public health problems. We have previously reported that a whey-derived glycine-threonine-tryptophan-tyrosine peptide, β-lactolin, improves hippocampus-dependent memory functions in mice. The supplementation with a whey digest rich in β-lactolin improves memory retrieval and executive function in a clinical trial, but the effect of β-lactolin on prefrontal cortex (PFC)-associated cognitive function was unclear. Here we examined the effect of β-lactolin and the whey digest on PFC-associated visual discrimination (VD) and reversal discrimination (RD) learning, using a rodent touch panel-based operant system. β-Lactolin and the whey digest significantly improved the RD learning, and the whey digest enhanced the response latency during the VD task, indicating that β-lactolin and the whey digest improve PFC-associated cognitive functions. Given the translational advantages of the touch panel operant system, consumption of β-lactolin in daily life could be beneficial for improving human PFC-associated cognitive function, helping to prevent dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatsuhiro Ayabe
- Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies, Kirin Holdings Company Ltd, Yokohama-shi, Japan
| | - Rena Ohya
- Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies, Kirin Holdings Company Ltd, Yokohama-shi, Japan
| | - Yasuhisa Ano
- Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies, Kirin Holdings Company Ltd, Yokohama-shi, Japan
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28
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Beraldo FH, Palmer D, Memar S, Wasserman DI, Lee WJV, Liang S, Creighton SD, Kolisnyk B, Cowan MF, Mels J, Masood TS, Fodor C, Al-Onaizi MA, Bartha R, Gee T, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ, Strother SS, Prado VF, Winters BD, Prado MA. MouseBytes, an open-access high-throughput pipeline and database for rodent touchscreen-based cognitive assessment. eLife 2019; 8:49630. [PMID: 31825307 PMCID: PMC6934379 DOI: 10.7554/elife.49630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2019] [Accepted: 12/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Open Science has changed research by making data accessible and shareable, contributing to replicability to accelerate and disseminate knowledge. However, for rodent cognitive studies the availability of tools to share and disseminate data is scarce. Automated touchscreen-based tests enable systematic cognitive assessment with easily standardised outputs that can facilitate data dissemination. Here we present an integration of touchscreen cognitive testing with an open-access database public repository (mousebytes.ca), as well as a Web platform for knowledge dissemination (https://touchscreencognition.org). We complement these resources with the largest dataset of age-dependent high-level cognitive assessment of mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, expanding knowledge of affected cognitive domains from male and female mice of three strains. We envision that these new platforms will enhance sharing of protocols, data availability and transparency, allowing meta-analysis and reuse of mouse cognitive data to increase the replicability/reproducibility of datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavio H Beraldo
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Daniel Palmer
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
| | - Sara Memar
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - David I Wasserman
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
| | - Wai-Jane V Lee
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Shuai Liang
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
| | - Samantha D Creighton
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
| | - Benjamin Kolisnyk
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Matthew F Cowan
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Justin Mels
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Talal S Masood
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Chris Fodor
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Mohammed A Al-Onaizi
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Robert Bartha
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Medical Biophysics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Tom Gee
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Stephen S Strother
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada.,Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Vania F Prado
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
| | - Boyer D Winters
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
| | - Marco Am Prado
- Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Graduate Program in Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
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29
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Heath CJ, O'Callaghan C, Mason SL, Phillips BU, Saksida LM, Robbins TW, Barker RA, Bussey TJ, Sahakian BJ. A Touchscreen Motivation Assessment Evaluated in Huntington's Disease Patients and R6/1 Model Mice. Front Neurol 2019; 10:858. [PMID: 31447770 PMCID: PMC6696591 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 07/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Apathy is pervasive across many neuropsychiatric disorders but is poorly characterized mechanistically, so targeted therapeutic interventions remain elusive. A key impediment has been the lack of validated assessment tools to facilitate translation of promising findings between preclinical disease models and patients. Apathy is a common symptom in Huntington's disease. Due to its established genetic basis and the availability of defined animal models, this disease offers a robust translational framework for linking motivated behavior with underlying neurobiology and an ideal context in which to evaluate a quantitative, translational apathy assessment method. In this study we therefore aimed to demonstrate the validity of using touchscreen-delivered progressive ratio tasks to mirror apathy assessment in Huntington's disease patients and a representative mouse model. To do this we evaluated Huntington's disease patients (n = 23) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 20), and male R6/1 mice (n = 23) and wildtype controls (n = 29) for apathy-like behavior using touchscreen-delivered progressive ratio tasks. The primary outcome measure of the assessment was breakpoint, defined as the highest number of touchscreen responses emitted before task engagement ceased. Patients and R6/1 mice were both found to exhibit significantly reduced breakpoints relative to their respective control groups, consistent with apathy-like behavior. This performance was also not associated with motoric differences in either species. These data demonstrate the utility of touchscreen-delivered progressive ratio tasks in detecting clinically relevant motivational deficits in Huntington's disease. This approach may offer a platform from which clinically relevant mechanistic insights concerning motivation symptoms can be derived and provide an effective route for translation of promising preclinical findings into viable therapeutic interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J. Heath
- Department of Psychology, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
| | - Claire O'Callaghan
- Department of Psychology, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Sarah L. Mason
- John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Benjamin U. Phillips
- Department of Psychology, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Lisa M. Saksida
- Department of Psychology, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
| | - Trevor W. Robbins
- Department of Psychology, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Roger A. Barker
- John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Timothy J. Bussey
- Department of Psychology, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
| | - Barbara J. Sahakian
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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30
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Carron S, Dezsi G, Ozturk E, Nithianantharajah J, Jones NC. Cognitive deficits in a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy using touchscreen‐based translational tools. Epilepsia 2019; 60:1650-1660. [DOI: 10.1111/epi.16291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2019] [Revised: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Simone Carron
- Department of Medicine (Royal Melbourne Hospital) Melbourne Brain Centre University of Melbourne Parkville Victoria Australia
| | - Gabi Dezsi
- Department of Neuroscience Central Clinical School The Alfred Hospital Monash University and Department of Neurology Melbourne Victoria Australia
| | - Ezgi Ozturk
- Department of Neuroscience Central Clinical School The Alfred Hospital Monash University and Department of Neurology Melbourne Victoria Australia
| | - Jess Nithianantharajah
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health Melbourne Brain Centre Parkville Victoria Australia
| | - Nigel C. Jones
- Department of Medicine (Royal Melbourne Hospital) Melbourne Brain Centre University of Melbourne Parkville Victoria Australia
- Department of Neuroscience Central Clinical School The Alfred Hospital Monash University and Department of Neurology Melbourne Victoria Australia
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31
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Cortese A, Delgado-Morales R, Almeida OFX, Romberg C. The Arctic/Swedish APP mutation alters the impact of chronic stress on cognition in mice. Eur J Neurosci 2019; 50:2773-2785. [PMID: 31231836 PMCID: PMC6852344 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 06/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Chronic stress is a major risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and promotes the processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) to β-amyloid (Aβ). However, the precise relationship of stress and disease-typical cognitive decline is presently not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate how early life stress may affect cognition in adult mice with and without soluble Aβ pathology typical for the early stages of the disease. We focussed on sustained attention and response control, aspects of cognition mediated by the prefrontal cortex that are consistently impaired both in early AD and after chronic stress exposure. Young wild-type mice as well as transgenic arcAβ mice overexpressing the hAPParc/swe transgene were exposed to a chronic unpredictable stress paradigm (age 3-8 weeks). At 15 weeks, these mice were tested on the 5-choice serial reaction time task, a test of sustained attention and executive control. We found that, expectedly, chronic stress increased impulsive choices and impaired sustained attention in wild-type mice. However, the same treatment reduced impulsivity and did not interfere with sustained attention in arcAβ mice. These findings suggest an unexpected interaction between chronic stress and Aβ whereby Aβ-pathology caused by the hAPParc/swe mutation prevented and/or reversed stress-induced cognitive changes through mechanisms that deserve further investigation. They also indicate that Aβ, in modest amounts, may have a beneficial role for cognitive stability, for example by protecting neural networks from the impact of further physiological or behavioural stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurelio Cortese
- Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, ATR Institute International, Kyoto, Japan
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32
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Shepherd A, May C, Churilov L, Adlard PA, Hannan AJ, Burrows EL. Evaluation of attention in APP/PS1 mice shows impulsive and compulsive behaviours. GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR 2019; 20:e12594. [PMID: 31177612 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
While Alzheimer's disease (AD) is traditionally associated with deficits in episodic memory, early changes in other cognitive domains, such as attention, have been gaining interest. In line with clinical observations, some animal models of AD have been shown to develop attentional deficits, but this is not consistent across all models. The APPswe/PS1ΔE9 (APP/PS1) mouse is one of the most commonly used AD models and attention has not yet been scrutinised in this model. We set out to assess attention using the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRTT) early in the progression of cognitive symptoms in APP/PS1 mice, using clinically translatable touchscreen chambers. APP/PS1 mice showed no attentional changes across 5CSRTT training or any probes from 9 to 11 months of age. Interestingly, APP/PS1 mice showed increased impulsive and compulsive responding when task difficulty was high. This suggests that while the APP/PS1 mouse model may not be a good model of attentional changes in AD, it may be useful to study the early changes in impulsive and compulsive behaviour that have been identified in patient studies. As these changes have not previously been reported without attentional deficits in the clinic, the APP/PS1 mouse model may provide a unique opportunity to study these specific behavioural changes seen in AD, including their mechanistic underpinnings and therapeutic implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Shepherd
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Carlos May
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Leonid Churilov
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
| | - Paul A Adlard
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Anthony J Hannan
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.,Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Emma L Burrows
- Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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33
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Van den Broeck L, Hansquine P, Callaerts-Vegh Z, D'Hooge R. Impaired Reversal Learning in APPPS1-21 Mice in the Touchscreen Visual Discrimination Task. Front Behav Neurosci 2019; 13:92. [PMID: 31143103 PMCID: PMC6521801 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2018] [Accepted: 04/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Preclinical-clinical translation of cognitive functions has been difficult in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research but is crucial to the (predictive) validity of AD animal models. Reversal learning, a representation of flexibility and adaptability to a changing environment, might represent such a translatable feature of human cognition. We, therefore, examined visual discrimination (VD) and reversal learning in the APPPS1-21 mouse model of amyloid-based AD pathology. We used touchscreen operant cages in novel and translationally valid, as well as objective testing methodology that minimizes within- or between-trial handling. Mice were trained to associate a visual cue with a food reward (VD learning), and subsequently learned to adjust their response when this rule changed (reversal learning). We assessed performance at two different ages, namely at 6 months of age, considered an early disease stage, and at 9 months, a stage of established pathology. Both at 6 and 9 months, transgenic animals needed more sessions to reach criterion performance, compared to wild-type controls. Overall, transgenic animals do not show a general cognitive, motivational or motor deficit, but experience specific difficulties to adapt to reward contingency changes, already at an early pathology stage.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Rudi D'Hooge
- Laboratory of Biological Psychology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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34
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Sanchez-Bezanilla S, TeBay C, Nilsson M, Walker FR, Ong LK. Visual discrimination impairment after experimental stroke is associated with disturbances in the polarization of the astrocytic aquaporin-4 and increased accumulation of neurotoxic proteins. Exp Neurol 2019; 318:232-243. [PMID: 31077714 DOI: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2019.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Revised: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/06/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Numerous clinical studies have documented the high incidence of cognitive impairment after stroke. However, there is only limited knowledge about the underlying mechanisms. Interestingly, there is emerging evidence suggesting that cognitive function after stroke may be affected due to reduced waste clearance and subsequent accumulation of neurotoxic proteins. To further explore this potential association, we utilised a model of experimental stroke in mice. Specifically, a photothrombotic vascular occlusion targeting motor and sensory parts of the cerebral cortex was induced in young adult mice, and changes in cognition were assessed using a touchscreen platform for pairwise visual discrimination. The results showed that the execution of the visual discrimination task was impaired in mice 10 to 14 days post-stroke compared to sham. Stroke also induced significant neuronal loss within the peri-infarct, thalamus and the CA1 sub-region of the hippocampus. Further, immunohistochemical and protein analyses of the selected brain regions revealed an increased accumulation and aggregation of both amyloid-β and α-synuclein. These alterations were associated with significant disturbances in the aquaporin-4 protein expression and polarization at the astrocytic end-feet. The results suggest a link between the increased accumulation of neurotoxic proteins and the stroke-induced cognitive impairment. Given that the neurotoxic protein accumulation appeared alongside changes in astrocytic aquaporin-4 distribution, we suggest that the function of the waste clearance pathways in the brain post-stroke may represent a therapeutic target to improve brain recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Sanchez-Bezanilla
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, Heights, NSW, Australia
| | - Clifford TeBay
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
| | - Michael Nilsson
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, Heights, NSW, Australia; NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia; Centre for Rehab Innovations, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; LKC School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
| | - Frederick R Walker
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, Heights, NSW, Australia; NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia; Centre for Rehab Innovations, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
| | - Lin Kooi Ong
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton, Heights, NSW, Australia; NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.
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35
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Arulsamy A, Corrigan F, Collins-Praino LE. Age, but not severity of injury, mediates decline in executive function: Validation of the rodent touchscreen paradigm for preclinical models of traumatic brain injury. Behav Brain Res 2019; 368:111912. [PMID: 30998995 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.111912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2019] [Revised: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 04/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Increasingly, it is being recognised that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is not just an acute event but instead results in ongoing neuronal injury that may lead to chronic impairments in multiple cognitive domains. Of these, deficits in executive function are one of the more common changes reported following TBI, and are a major predictor of well-being, social function and quality of life in individuals with a history of TBI. In order to fully understand the relationship between TBI and executive dysfunction, including brain mechanisms that may account for this, experimental models are clearly needed. However, to date, there have been a lack of preclinical studies systematically comparing the effect of injury severity on executive function, particularly at long-term timepoints post-injury. Furthermore, many previous studies have not used behavioural measures that are sensitive to the full range of executive function impairments that may manifest after injury, particularly in models of diffuse axonal injury (Lv et al.). The current study aimed to investigate the temporal profile, up to 12 months post-injury, of the evolution of executive dysfunction following different severities of injury in an experimental model of DAI. In order to do so, we utilised a rodent touchscreen paradigm to administer the 5 Choice- Continuous Performance Task (5C-CPT), an extension of the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRT). Interestingly, there were no differences in learning, motivation, attention, response time or impulsivity at 1 month, 6 months or 12 months post-injury in any of the TBI groups compared to sham, regardless of the initial severity of the injury. Instead, most of the effects on executive function seen at the 12 month timepoint appeared to be a result of ageing, not injury. As even the 12-month timepoint represents middle age in the rat, future studies will be needed to further probe these effects, in order to determine whether DAI may influence the presentation of executive dysfunction in older age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alina Arulsamy
- Cognition, Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disease Lab, Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005 Australia
| | | | - Lyndsey E Collins-Praino
- Cognition, Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disease Lab, Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005 Australia.
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36
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Lim J, Kim E, Noh HJ, Kang S, Phillips BU, Kim DG, Bussey TJ, Saksida L, Heath CJ, Kim CH. Assessment of mGluR5 KO mice under conditions of low stress using a rodent touchscreen apparatus reveals impaired behavioural flexibility driven by perseverative responses. Mol Brain 2019; 12:37. [PMID: 30971312 PMCID: PMC6458840 DOI: 10.1186/s13041-019-0441-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2018] [Accepted: 03/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Genetic and pharmacological manipulations targeting metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) affect performance in behavioural paradigms that depend on cognitive flexibility. Many of these studies involved exposing mice to highly stressful conditions including electric foot shocks or water immersion and forced swimming. Because mGluR5 is also implicated in resilience and stress responses, however, apparent impairments in inhibitory learning may have been an artifact of manipulation-induced changes in affective state. To address this, we present here a characterization of cognitive flexibility in mGluR5 knockout (KO) mice conducted with a rodent touchscreen cognitive assessment apparatus in which the animals experience significantly less stress. Our results indicate a significant reversal learning impairment relative to wild-type (WT) controls in the two-choice Visual Discrimination-Reversal (VDR) paradigm. Upon further analysis, we found that this deficit is primarily driven by a prolonged period of perseveration in the early phase of reversal. We also observed a similar perseveration phenotype in the KO mice in the Extinction (EXT) paradigm. In addition, mGluR5 KO mice show higher breakpoints in the touchscreen Progressive Ratio (PR) and altered decision making in the Effort-related Choice (ERC) tasks. Interestingly, this impairment in PR is an additional manifestation of an increased propensity to perseverate on the emission of relatively simplistic behavioural outputs. Together, these findings suggest that under conditions of low stress, mGluR5 KO mice exhibit a pronounced perseverative phenotype that blunts cognitive flexibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jisoo Lim
- Department of Pharmacology, BK21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Eosu Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Behavioural Science in Medicine, BK21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyun Jong Noh
- Department of Pharmacology, BK21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Shinwon Kang
- Department of Pharmacology, BK21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Benjamin U Phillips
- Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK
| | - Dong Goo Kim
- Department of Pharmacology, BK21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.,Molecular Medicine Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Lisa Saksida
- Department of Psychology and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.,Molecular Medicine Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Christopher J Heath
- School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
| | - Chul Hoon Kim
- Department of Pharmacology, BK21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea. .,Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, South Korea.
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37
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Zou S, Li CT. High-Throughput Automatic Training System for Spatial Working Memory in Free-Moving Mice. Neurosci Bull 2019; 35:389-400. [PMID: 30977042 DOI: 10.1007/s12264-019-00370-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2018] [Accepted: 12/12/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Efficient behavioral assays are crucial for understanding the neural mechanisms of cognitive functions. Here, we designed a high-throughput automatic training system for spatial cognition (HASS) for free-moving mice. Mice were trained to return to the home arm and remain there during a delay period. Software was designed to enable automatic training in all its phases, including habituation, shaping, and learning. Using this system, we trained mice to successfully perform a spatially delayed nonmatch to sample task, which tested spatial cognition, working memory, and decision making. Performance depended on the delay duration, which is a hallmark of working memory tasks. The HASS enabled a human operator to train more than six mice simultaneously with minimal intervention, therefore greatly enhancing experimental efficiency and minimizing stress to the mice. Combined with the optogenetic method and neurophysiological techniques, the HASS will be useful in deciphering the neural circuitry underlying spatial cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shimin Zou
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, Shanghai, 200031, China.,School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Chengyu Tony Li
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, Shanghai, 200031, China. .,School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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38
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Ayabe T, Ohya R, Ano Y. Hop-Derived Iso-α-Acids in Beer Improve Visual Discrimination and Reversal Learning in Mice as Assessed by a Touch Panel Operant System. Front Behav Neurosci 2019; 13:67. [PMID: 31001094 PMCID: PMC6454052 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2019] [Accepted: 03/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Dementia and cognitive decline have become worldwide health problems due to rapid growth of the aged population in many countries. We previously demonstrated that single or short-term administration of iso-α-acids, hop-derived bitter acids in beer, improves the spatial memory of scopolamine-induced amnesia model mice in the Y-maze and enhances novel object recognition in normal mice via activation of the vagus nerve and hippocampal dopaminergic system. However, these behavioral tests do not replicate the stimulus conditions or response requirements of human memory tests, and so may have poor translational validity. In this report, we investigated the effects of iso-α-acids on visual discrimination (VD) and reversal discrimination (RD) using a touch panel-based operant system similar to that used for human working memory tests. In the VD task, scopolamine treatment reduced correct response rate and prolonged response latency in mice, deficits reversed by prior oral administration of iso-α-acids. In the RD task, administration of iso-α-acids significantly increased correct response rate compared to vehicle administration. Previous studies have reported that dopamine signaling is involved in both VD and RD learning, suggesting that enhancement of dopamine release contributes to improved memory performance in mice treated with iso-α-acids. Taken together, iso-α-acids improve VD and RD learning, which are considered high-order cognitive functions. Given the translational advantages of the touch panel-based operant system, the present study suggests that iso-α-acids could be effective for improvement of working memory in human dementia patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatsuhiro Ayabe
- Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies, Kirin Company Ltd., Yokohama, Japan
| | - Rena Ohya
- Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies, Kirin Company Ltd., Yokohama, Japan
| | - Yasuhisa Ano
- Research Laboratories for Health Science & Food Technologies, Kirin Company Ltd., Yokohama, Japan
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39
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Sakakibara Y, Sekiya M, Saito T, Saido TC, Iijima KM. Cognitive and emotional alterations in App knock-in mouse models of Aβ amyloidosis. BMC Neurosci 2018; 19:46. [PMID: 30055565 PMCID: PMC6064053 DOI: 10.1186/s12868-018-0446-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2018] [Accepted: 07/21/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is characterized by the progressive deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and neurofibrillary tangles. Mouse models of Aβ amyloidosis generated by knock-in (KI) of a humanized Aβ sequence provide distinct advantages over traditional transgenic models that rely on overexpression of amyloid precursor protein (APP). In App-KI mice, three familial AD-associated mutations were introduced into the endogenous mouse App locus to recapitulate Aβ pathology observed in AD: the Swedish (NL) mutation, which elevates total Aβ production; the Beyreuther/Iberian (F) mutation, which increases the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio; and the Arctic (G) mutation, which promotes Aβ aggregation. AppNL-G-F mice harbor all three mutations and develop progressive Aβ amyloidosis and neuroinflammatory response in broader brain areas, whereas AppNL mice carrying only the Swedish mutation exhibit no overt AD-related pathological changes. To identify behavioral alterations associated with Aβ pathology, we assessed emotional and cognitive domains of AppNL-G-F and AppNL mice at different time points, using the elevated plus maze, contextual fear conditioning, and Barnes maze tasks. Results Assessments of emotional domains revealed that, in comparison with wild-type (WT) C57BL/6J mice, AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice exhibited anxiolytic-like behavior that was detectable from 6 months of age. By contrast, AppNL/NL mice exhibited anxiogenic-like behavior from 15 months of age. In the contextual fear conditioning task, both AppNL/NL and AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice exhibited intact learning and memory up to 15–18 months of age, whereas AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice exhibited hyper-reactivity to painful stimuli. In the Barnes maze task, AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice exhibited a subtle decline in spatial learning ability at 8 months of age, but retained normal memory functions. Conclusion AppNL/NL and AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice exhibit behavioral changes associated with non-cognitive, emotional domains before the onset of definitive cognitive deficits. Our observations consistently indicate that AppNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice represent a model for preclinical AD. These mice are useful for the study of AD prevention rather than treatment after neurodegeneration. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12868-018-0446-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yasufumi Sakakibara
- Department of Alzheimer's Disease Research, Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Aichi, 474-8511, Japan.
| | - Michiko Sekiya
- Department of Alzheimer's Disease Research, Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Aichi, 474-8511, Japan
| | - Takashi Saito
- Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan
| | - Takaomi C Saido
- Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan
| | - Koichi M Iijima
- Department of Alzheimer's Disease Research, Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Aichi, 474-8511, Japan. .,Department of Experimental Gerontology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University, Nagoya, 467-8603, Japan.
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40
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Ameen-Ali KE, Wharton SB, Simpson JE, Heath PR, Sharp P, Berwick J. Review: Neuropathology and behavioural features of transgenic murine models of Alzheimer's disease. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 2018; 43:553-570. [PMID: 28880417 DOI: 10.1111/nan.12440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2017] [Accepted: 09/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Our understanding of the underlying biology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been steadily progressing; however, this is yet to translate into a successful treatment in humans. The use of transgenic mouse models has helped to develop our understanding of AD, not only in terms of disease pathology, but also with the associated cognitive impairments typical of AD. Plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are often among the last pathological changes in AD mouse models, after neuronal loss and gliosis. There is a general consensus that successful treatments need to be applied before the onset of these pathologies and associated cognitive symptoms. This review discusses the different types of AD mouse models in terms of the temporal progression of the disease, how well they replicate the pathological changes seen in human AD and their cognitive defects. We provide a critical assessment of the behavioural tests used with AD mice to assess cognitive changes and decline, and discuss how successfully they correlate with cognitive impairments in humans with AD. This information is an important tool for AD researchers when deciding on appropriate mouse models, and when selecting measures to assess behavioural and cognitive change.
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Affiliation(s)
- K E Ameen-Ali
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - S B Wharton
- Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - J E Simpson
- Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - P R Heath
- Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - P Sharp
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - J Berwick
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
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41
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Nichols JN, Hagan KL, Floyd CL. Evaluation of Touchscreen Chambers To Assess Cognition in Adult Mice: Effect of Training and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. J Neurotrauma 2018; 34:2481-2494. [PMID: 28558476 DOI: 10.1089/neu.2017.4998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive impairments are often experienced after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). In the clinical arena, neuropsychological assessments are used frequently to detect cognitive deficits. Animal models of mTBI, however, rely on an assortment of behavioral tasks to assess cognitive outcome. Computer-based touchscreen systems have been developed for rodents and are hypothesized to offer a translational approach to evaluate cognitive function because of the similarities of tasks performed in rodents to those implemented in humans. While these touchscreen systems have been used in pre-clinical models of neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders, their use in assessing cognitive impairment after mTBI has not been investigated. We hypothesized that mTBI would result in impaired cognitive performance on touchscreen tasks, particularly those with hippocampal-based learning components, including the paired associate learning (PAL) task and the location discrimination (LD) task. Adult male, C57BL/6 mice received a single impact-acceleration mTBI. We found that training mice before injury to perform to criteria is arduous and that performance is sensitive to many environmental variables. Despite extensive optimization and training, mice failed to perform better than chance in the PAL paradigm. Alternatively, mice demonstrated some capacity to learn in the LD paradigm, but only with the easier stages of the task. The mTBI did not affect performance in the LD paradigm, however. Thus, we concluded that under the conditions presented here, the PAL and LD touchscreen tasks are not robust outcome measures for the evaluation of cognitive performance in C57BL/6 mice after a single impact-acceleration mTBI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica N Nichols
- 1 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham, Alabama
| | - Kenton L Hagan
- 2 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Candace L Floyd
- 1 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham, Alabama
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42
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Martini F, Pesarico AP, Brüning CA, Zeni G, Nogueira CW. Ebselen inhibits the activity of acetylcholinesterase globular isoform G4 in vitro and attenuates scopolamine-induced amnesia in mice. J Cell Biochem 2018; 119:5598-5608. [PMID: 29405440 DOI: 10.1002/jcb.26731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2017] [Accepted: 01/29/2018] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
There is a well-known relationship between the cholinergic system and learning, memory, and other common cognitive processes. The process for researching and developing new drugs has lead researchers to repurpose older ones. This study investigated the effects of ebselen on the activity of acethylcholinesterase (AChE) isoforms in vitro and in an amnesia model induced by scopolamine in Swiss mice. In vitro, ebselen at concentrations equal or higher than 10 μM inhibited the activity of cortical and hippocampal G4/AChE, but not G1/AChE isoform. Treatment of mice with ebselen (50 mg/kg, i.p.) was effective against impairment of spatial recognition memory in both Y-maze and novel object recognition tests induced by scopolamine (1 mg/kg, i.p.). Ebselen (50 mg/kg) inhibited hippocampal AChE activity in mice. The present study demonstrates that ebselen inhibited the G4/AChE isoform in vitro and elicited an anti-amnesic effect in a mouse model induced by scopolamine. These findings reveal ebselen as a potential compound in terms of opening up valid therapeutic avenues for the treatment of memory impairment diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Franciele Martini
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Laboratório de Síntese, Reatividade e Avaliação Farmacológica e Toxicológica de Organocalcogênios, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - Ana P Pesarico
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Laboratório de Síntese, Reatividade e Avaliação Farmacológica e Toxicológica de Organocalcogênios, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - César A Brüning
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioquímica e Bioprospecção, Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos (CCQFA), Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - Gilson Zeni
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Laboratório de Síntese, Reatividade e Avaliação Farmacológica e Toxicológica de Organocalcogênios, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - Cristina W Nogueira
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Laboratório de Síntese, Reatividade e Avaliação Farmacológica e Toxicológica de Organocalcogênios, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
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43
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Wilson EN, Abela AR, Do Carmo S, Allard S, Marks AR, Welikovitch LA, Ducatenzeiler A, Chudasama Y, Cuello AC. Intraneuronal Amyloid Beta Accumulation Disrupts Hippocampal CRTC1-Dependent Gene Expression and Cognitive Function in a Rat Model of Alzheimer Disease. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018; 27:1501-1511. [PMID: 26759481 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhv332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
In Alzheimer disease (AD), the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) begins decades before cognitive symptoms and progresses from intraneuronal material to extracellular plaques. To date, however, the precise mechanism by which the early buildup of Aβ peptides leads to cognitive dysfunction remains unknown. Here, we investigate the impact of the early Aβ accumulation on temporal and frontal lobe dysfunction. We compared the performance of McGill-R-Thy1-APP transgenic AD rats with wild-type littermate controls on a visual discrimination task using a touchscreen operant platform. Subsequently, we conducted studies to establish the biochemical and molecular basis for the behavioral alterations. It was found that the presence of intraneuronal Aβ caused a severe associative learning deficit in the AD rats. This coincided with reduced nuclear translocation and genomic occupancy of the CREB co-activator, CRTC1, and decreased production of synaptic plasticity-associated transcripts Arc, c-fos, Egr1, and Bdnf. Thus, blockade of CRTC1-dependent gene expression in the early, preplaque phase of AD-like pathology provides a molecular basis for the cognitive deficits that figure so prominently in early AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward N Wilson
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3G 1Y6
| | - Andrew R Abela
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3A 1B1
| | - Sonia Do Carmo
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3G 1Y6
| | - Simon Allard
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3G 1Y6
| | - Adam R Marks
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3G 1Y6
| | - Lindsay A Welikovitch
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3G 1Y6
| | - Adriana Ducatenzeiler
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QCCanadaH3G 1Y6
| | - Yogita Chudasama
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada H3A 1B1.,Current address: National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - A Claudio Cuello
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada H3G 1Y6.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.,Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada
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44
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Han Z, Zhang X, Zhu J, Chen Y, Li CT. High-Throughput Automatic Training System for Odor-Based Learned Behaviors in Head-Fixed Mice. Front Neural Circuits 2018; 12:15. [PMID: 29487506 PMCID: PMC5816819 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2018.00015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2017] [Accepted: 01/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding neuronal mechanisms of learned behaviors requires efficient behavioral assays. We designed a high-throughput automatic training system (HATS) for olfactory behaviors in head-fixed mice. The hardware and software were constructed to enable automatic training with minimal human intervention. The integrated system was composed of customized 3D-printing supporting components, an odor-delivery unit with fast response, Arduino based hardware-controlling and data-acquisition unit. Furthermore, the customized software was designed to enable automatic training in all training phases, including lick-teaching, shaping and learning. Using HATS, we trained mice to perform delayed non-match to sample (DNMS), delayed paired association (DPA), Go/No-go (GNG), and GNG reversal tasks. These tasks probed cognitive functions including sensory discrimination, working memory, decision making and cognitive flexibility. Mice reached stable levels of performance within several days in the tasks. HATS enabled an experimenter to train eight mice simultaneously, therefore greatly enhanced the experimental efficiency. Combined with causal perturbation and activity recording techniques, HATS can greatly facilitate our understanding of the neural-circuitry mechanisms underlying learned behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Han
- State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaoxing Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Jia Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yulei Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Chengyu T Li
- State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
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Hailwood JM, Heath CJ, Robbins TW, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ. Validation and optimisation of a touchscreen progressive ratio test of motivation in male rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2018; 235:2739-2753. [PMID: 30008032 PMCID: PMC6132691 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-018-4969-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2018] [Accepted: 07/05/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
RATIONALE Across species, effort-related motivation can be assessed by testing behaviour under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement. However, to date, PR tasks for rodents have been available using traditional operant response systems only. OBJECTIVES Touchscreen operant response systems allow the assessment of behaviour in laboratory rodents, using tasks that share high face validity with the computerised assessments used in humans. Here, we sought to optimise a rat touchscreen variant of PR and validate it by assessing the effects of a number of manipulations known to affect PR performance in non-touchscreen paradigms. METHODS Separate groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on PR schedules with either linear (PR4) or exponential (PREXP) schedules of reinforcement. PR performance was assessed in response to manipulations in reward outcome. Animals were tested under conditions of increased reward magnitude and following reward devaluation through a prefeeding procedure. Subsequently, the effects of systemic administration of the dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonist raclopride and the psychostimulant d-amphetamine were examined as traditional pharmacological methods for manipulating motivation. RESULTS Rats reinforced under PR4 and PREXP schedules consistently showed differential patterns of response rates within sessions. Furthermore, both PR4 and PREXP schedules were sensitive to suppression by prefeeding or raclopride administration. Performance under both schedules was facilitated by increasing reward magnitude or d-amphetamine administration. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, these findings mirror those observed in lever-based PR paradigms in rats. This study therefore demonstrates the successful validation of the rat touchscreen PR task. This will allow for the assessment of motivation in rats, within the same touchscreen apparatus used for the assessment of complex cognitive processes in this species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan M. Hailwood
- Department of Psychology and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB UK
| | - Christopher J. Heath
- School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA UK
| | - Trevor W. Robbins
- Department of Psychology and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB UK
| | - Lisa M. Saksida
- Molecular Medicine Research Group, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON Canada ,The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON Canada
| | - Timothy J. Bussey
- Department of Psychology and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB UK ,Molecular Medicine Research Group, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON Canada ,The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON Canada
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46
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Kent BA, Heath CJ, Kim CH, Ahrens R, Fraser PE, St George‐Hyslop P, Bussey TJ, Saksida LM. Longitudinal evaluation of Tau-P301L transgenic mice reveals no cognitive impairments at 17 months of age. Brain Behav 2018; 8:e00896. [PMID: 29568692 PMCID: PMC5853624 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.896] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2017] [Revised: 09/07/2017] [Accepted: 11/15/2017] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Tau is a microtubule-associated binding protein implicated in neurodegenerative tauopathies, including frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). These diseases result in the intracellular accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau in the form of neurofibrillary tangles, the presence of which is associated with cognitive deficits. Methods We conducted a longitudinal behavioral study to provide a profile of the TgTau(P301L)23027 transgenic mouse in multiple cognitive domains across multiple ages. P301L is the tau mutation most frequently observed in patients with frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) and this mouse model recapitulates the progressive development of glial and neurofibrillary tangles, and associated cerebral atrophy observed in patients. We examined frontal cortex-dependent executive function and attention with the touchscreen 5-choice serial reaction time test (5-CSRTT) and assessed the function of temporal cortical structures using novel object recognition (OR). Results Despite using sensitive tasks, there were no apparent changes in executive function, attention, or recognition memory in the transgenic mice from 5 to 17 months of age. Conclusions This study represents the first comprehensive longitudinal analysis of cognition in the TgTauP301L mouse model and suggests that this model is not ideal for studying early attention and recognition memory impairments associated with tauopathy. However, spatial and object recognition memory impairments were observed during follow-up assessments when the mice were 18 and 21 months, respectively. These impairments are consistent with previous publications, and with a dementia-like phenotype in these mice when aged.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brianne A. Kent
- Department of MedicineUniversity of British ColumbiaVancouverBCCanada
| | - Christopher J. Heath
- Department of Life, Health and Chemical SciencesThe Open UniversityMilton KeynesUK
| | - Chi Hun Kim
- Department of PsychiatryUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | - Rosemary Ahrens
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative DiseasesUniversity of TorontoTorontoONCanada
| | - Paul E. Fraser
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative DiseasesUniversity of TorontoTorontoONCanada
| | - Peter St George‐Hyslop
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative DiseasesUniversity of TorontoTorontoONCanada
- Cambridge Institute for Medical ResearchUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Timothy J. Bussey
- Department of Psychology and MRC & Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience InstituteUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
- Molecular Medicine Research Group, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & DentistryWestern UniversityLondonONCanada
- The Brain and Mind InstituteWestern UniversityLondonONCanada
| | - Lisa M. Saksida
- Department of Psychology and MRC & Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience InstituteUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
- Molecular Medicine Research Group, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & DentistryWestern UniversityLondonONCanada
- The Brain and Mind InstituteWestern UniversityLondonONCanada
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Martis LS, Krog S, Tran TP, Bouzinova E, Christiansen SL, Møller A, Holmes MC, Wiborg O. The effect of rat strain and stress exposure on performance in touchscreen tasks. Physiol Behav 2017; 184:83-90. [PMID: 29129610 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2017] [Revised: 11/07/2017] [Accepted: 11/08/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Patients suffering from depression-associated cognitive impairments often recover incompletely after remission from the core symptoms of depression (lack of energy, depressed mood and anhedonia). This study aimed to set the basis for clinically relevant testing of cognitive impairments in a preclinical model of depression. Hence, we used the chronic mild stress (CMS) model of depression, which provokes the core symptom of anhedonia in a fraction of the stress exposed animals, while others remain resilient, and assessed the entire CMS groups' cognitive performance on the touchscreen operant platform. Specifically, we applied the pairwise discrimination (PD) and reversal task including a retention phase on Wistar and Long Evans controls and CMS exposed Long Evans rats. We observed differences between the albino Wistar and the pigmented Long Evans strain regarding performance in the PD and reversal task as well as in memory consolidation. CMS exposure did not alter learning and memory in the PD and reversal task, even though it altered affective behaviours in the elevated plus-maze and open field test. This is likely due to the heterogeneity of the CMS group, in which stress exposure elicited the expected range of phenotypes from anhedonic-like to resilient shown with the sucrose consumption test. Thus, our study suggests that pigmented rat strains, such as Long Evans, are superior to albino rats in the vision-based touchscreen studies. Furthermore, we propose investigation of the CMS subgroups in more complex, hippocampus-dependent tasks to refine a translational preclinical model of depression-induced cognitive impairments. Hence, this study increased awareness of strain-specific differences in touchscreen performance and added to the literature regarding the sensitivity of the PD and reversal task to stress-induced cognitive alterations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena-Sophie Martis
- Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark; Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK.
| | - Simone Krog
- Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Thao Phuong Tran
- Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Elena Bouzinova
- Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Sofie L Christiansen
- Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Arne Møller
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Megan C Holmes
- Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK
| | - Ove Wiborg
- Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark; Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark
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Mouse models of neurodegenerative disease: preclinical imaging and neurovascular component. Brain Imaging Behav 2017; 12:1160-1196. [PMID: 29075922 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-017-9770-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases represent great challenges for basic science and clinical medicine because of their prevalence, pathologies, lack of mechanism-based treatments, and impacts on individuals. Translational research might contribute to the study of neurodegenerative diseases. The mouse has become a key model for studying disease mechanisms that might recapitulate in part some aspects of the corresponding human diseases. Neurodegenerative disorders are very complicated and multifactorial. This has to be taken in account when testing drugs. Most of the drugs screening in mice are very difficult to be interpretated and often useless. Mouse models could be condiderated a 'pathway models', rather than as models for the whole complicated construct that makes a human disease. Non-invasive in vivo imaging in mice has gained increasing interest in preclinical research in the last years thanks to the availability of high-resolution single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), high field Magnetic resonance, Optical Imaging scanners and of highly specific contrast agents. Behavioral test are useful tool to characterize different animal models of neurodegenerative pathology. Furthermore, many authors have observed vascular pathological features associated to the different neurodegenerative disorders. Aim of this review is to focus on the different existing animal models of neurodegenerative disorders, describe behavioral tests and preclinical imaging techniques used for diagnose and describe the vascular pathological features associated to these diseases.
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49
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Buscher N, van Dorsselaer P, Steckler T, Talpos JC. Evaluating aged mice in three touchscreen tests that differ in visual demands: Impaired cognitive function and impaired visual abilities. Behav Brain Res 2017; 333:142-149. [PMID: 28690184 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.06.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2017] [Revised: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 06/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Normal aging is often accompanied by reductions in cognitive abilities as well as impairments in visual acuity in men and mice. In preclinical models of human cognition this concomitance can make it difficult to assess the relative contributions of declined vision and cognitive ability on behavioral measures of cognition. To assess the influence of age on cognition and the impact of visual decline on the performance of touchscreen-based behavioral paradigms in mice, aged (11, 12, 16, 17, 19 and 21 months old) male C57BL/6J mice were compared to young (3 or 4 months old) male C57BL/6J mice using three tests of cognition as well as an assessment of visual acuity. Performance of a Visual Discrimination, Spatial Reversal, and an Automated Search Task were all affected by age. However, there was no relationship between reduced visual acuity and the observed performance impairments. Moreover, the visual acuity of animals with profound cognitive impairments overlapped with those showing normal cognitive ability. Despite the potential confound of impaired visual ability, it appears that the touchscreen approach might be particularly effective in studying age-related cognitive decline. This approach will increase the utility of aged mice as a model of decreased cognitive flexibility and may be particularly important for the study of age-related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathalie Buscher
- Janssen Research & Development, Turnhoutseweg 30, 2340 Beerse, Belgium; University of Bristol, Biomedical Sciences Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, United Kingdom.
| | | | - Thomas Steckler
- Janssen Research & Development, Turnhoutseweg 30, 2340 Beerse, Belgium
| | - John C Talpos
- Janssen Research & Development, Turnhoutseweg 30, 2340 Beerse, Belgium
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50
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Piiponniemi TO, Bragge T, Vauhkonen EE, Vartiainen P, Puoliväli JT, Sweeney PJ, Kopanitsa MV. Acquisition and reversal of visual discrimination learning in APPSwDI/Nos2−/− (CVN) mice. Neurosci Lett 2017; 650:126-133. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.04.049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2016] [Revised: 04/23/2017] [Accepted: 04/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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