Differential effects of etifoxine on anxiety-like behaviour and convulsions in BALB/cByJ and C57BL/6J mice: any relation to overexpression of central GABAA receptor beta2 subunits?

Dysfunction of GABAergic transmission related to abnormal expression of GABA(A) receptor subunits in specific brain regions underlies some pathological anxiety states. Besides involvement of the benzodiazepine recognition site of GABA(A) receptor in the expression of anxiety-like behaviour, the roles of the β(2)/β(3) subunits are not well characterized. To address this issue, the experimental design of this study utilized the GABAergic compound etifoxine (with a preferential effectiveness after binding to a specific site at β(2)/β(3) subunits) tested in two inbred mouse strains: BALB/cByJ and C57BL/6J mice using three behavioural paradigms (light/dark box, elevated plus maze and restraint stress-induced small intestinal transit inhibition) and the t-butylbicyclophosphorothionate-induced convulsions model.

Standardisation and establishment of a rabies ELISA test in European laboratories for assessing the efficacy of oral fox vaccination campaigns.

A simple and rapid enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect rabies antibodies in field fox sera has been standardised and established in several European laboratories. The same panels of 100 coded sera were investigated by four laboratories using this ELISA assay and reference serum neutralisation techniques (fluorescent antibody virus neutralisation (FAVN) test and rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT)). This indirect ELISA technique is highly correlated with conventional seroneutralisation test on cell culture.