Individual responses of rodents in modelling of affective disorders and in their treatment: prospective review.

IntroductionLack of good animal models for affective disorders, including major depression and bipolar disorder, is noted as a major bottleneck in attempts to study these disorders and develop better treatments. We suggest that an important approach that can help in the development and use of better models is attention to variability between model animals. RESULTS: Differences between mice strains were studied for some decades now, and sex differences get more attention than in the past.

Mood-stabilizing effects of rapamycin and its analog temsirolimus: relevance to autophagy.

Accumulated data support a relationship between mood disorders and cellular plasticity and resilience, some suggesting relevance to autophagy. Our previous data show that pharmacological enhancement of autophagy results in antidepressant-like effects in mice. The current study was designed to further examine the effects of autophagy enhancement on mood by testing the effects of subchronic treatment with the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors and autophagy enhancers rapamycin and temsirolimus in a model for mania and in a model for antidepressant action, respectively.

Partial effects of the AMPAkine CX717 in a strain specific battery of tests for manic-like behavior in black Swiss mice.

Background: AMPA receptors are highly expressed throughout the central nervous system and are suggested to be involved in mood regulation. Studies found changes in glutamate, its metabolites and receptors in patients with bipolar disorder (BPD) or major depression (MD) and in animal models of stress. Additional data suggest that the glutamatergic system and AMPA receptors specifically, have an important role in modulating the therapeutic effects of mood stabilizers.

Effects of repeated asenapine in a battery of tests for anxiety-like behaviours in mice.

Objective: A number of atypical antipsychotic drugs were demonstrated to have anxiolytic effects in patients and in animal models. These effects were mostly suggested to be the consequence of the drugs' affinity to the serotonin system and its receptors. Asenapine is a relatively new atypical antipsychotic that is prescribed for schizophrenia and for bipolar mania.

Introducing Female Black Swiss Mice: Minimal Effects of Sex in a Strain-Specific Battery of Tests for Mania-Like Behavior and Response to Lithium.

Black Swiss (BS) mice were shown to be an advantageous strain to model behavioral domains of mania, but to date only male mice were tested, whereas bipolar disorder (BPD) is equally prevalent in women and men. This study was therefore designed to examine the possibility of using both male and female BS mice in future studies. Groups of male and female BS mice were compared with each other, with or without lithium treatment, in tests for domains of mania-like behavior including activity in an open field, sweet solution preference, elevated plus maze, forced swim and amphetamine-induced hyperactivity.

The effects of the atypical antipsychotic asenapine in a strain-specific battery of tests for mania-like behaviors.

Asenapine is indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia and manic episodes in bipolar disorder (BPD). There is a paucity of information on the effects of asenapine in animal models of BPD, but such work is essential to discover its scope of effects and its mechanisms of therapeutic action. This study evaluated the effects of asenapine in a validated test battery for manic-like behaviors in Black Swiss mice.

Chronic oral carbamazepine treatment elicits mood-stabilising effects in mice.

Objective: The underlying biology of bipolar disorder and the mechanisms by which effective medications induce their therapeutic effects are not clear. Appropriate use of animal models are essential to further understand biological mechanisms of disease and treatment, and further understanding the therapeutic mechanism of mood stabilisers requires that clinically relevant administration will be effective in animal models. The clinical regimens for mood-stabilising drugs include chronic oral administration; however, much of the work with animal models includes acute administration via injection.

Beware of your mouse strain; differential effects of lithium on behavioral and neurochemical phenotypes in Harlan ICR mice bred in Israel or the USA.

Animal models are crucial components in the search for better understanding of the biological basis of psychiatric disorders and for the development of novel drugs. Research, in general, and research with animal models, in particular, relies on the consistency of effects of investigated drugs or manipulations across experiments. In that context, it had been noted that behavioral responses to lithium in ICR (CD-1) mice from Harlan Israel have changed across the last years.