Parkinson's Disease Model
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder with different ages of onset, symptoms and rates of progression, requiring the use of various animal models to study different aspects of the disease.
Our company' scientific team has extensive expertise in providing clients with scientifically sound and reliable animal models of Parkinson's disease to facilitate their research in related diseases, based on scientific methodological techniques and evaluation tools.
Introduction of Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease is a long-term degenerative disease of the central nervous system. The pathology is mainly characterized by the loss of nigrostriatal poly-rich baraminergic neurons and the aggregation of inclusions of α-synaptic nuclear proteins. Parkinson's disease is characterized by typical movement disorders such as tremor, bradykinesia, locomotor movements, tonicity, postural instability and gait difficulties as clinical symptoms. It is also accompanied by symptoms of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, cognitive decline and loss of smell, these non-motor impairments are also prevalent in patients with Parkinson's disease and usually occur prior to the onset of motor symptoms.
Although these symptomatic aspects are easily detectable clinically, human brain pathology can only be confirmed by examining postmortem tissue. Therefore, animal models are important for deepening our understanding of this multifaceted disease and for expanding currently limited treatment options.
The Parkinson's Diseases Models We Provide
The heterogeneity of Parkinson's etiology and pathology requires that different aspects of the disease be simulated in animals through multiple models. Commonly used methods to simulate animal models of Parkinson's disease include neurotoxic and genetic means.
The neuroscience experts at Our company fully understand the strengths and limitations of each animal model of Parkinson's disease. We select the appropriate modeling approach for our clients to help them obtain the ideal disease model to advance potential therapies in the clinical research arena.
- Neurotoxin induced PD model
Neurotoxin-mimetic dopaminergic neurodegeneration is usually caused by environmental factors associated with Parkinson's disease. It usually induces intense and rapid cell loss in the compact substantia nigra, causing motor symptoms and behavioral changes.
Our company offers two main models of Parkinson's disease based on toxin administration, including both topical and systemic administration. These models mainly include:
- MPTP induction model.
- 6-OHDA induction model.
- Pesticides and herbicides induction model.
Fig. 1 Dopaminergic neurotoxins applied in animal models of Parkinson's disease. (Schober, 2004)
- Genetic model of PD
Genetic models of PD have focused on genes known to be associated with familial Parkinson's disease, including transgenic models and viral vector-mediated models based on single-gene Parkinson's disease-associated genes. In these models, the target gene is usually knocked out or a humanized version of the gene is knocked in or transgenically expressed.
Our company offers genetic models of PD including but not limited to the following.
| Genetic Models of PD | |
|---|---|
| Gene knockout models | Genes associated with Parkinson's disease include: SNCA, LRRK2, UCH-L1, PRKN, PINK1, DJ-1, etc. |
| Viral vector transgenic models | Local overexpression of α-synuclein induced PD model by targeting a viral vector into the brain. |
| Others: Combined transgenic and neurotoxin models | |
Fig. 2 Animal models of Parkinson's disease. (Recchia, 2004)
Behavioral Evaluation Methods for Parkinson's Disease Models
Behavioral researches are very important indicators to evaluate models of Parkinson's disease and can be used to assess the degree of similarity to human disease. Our company uses a variety of advanced experimental equipment and methods for testing the behavior of Parkinson's disease models. We offer behavioral assessment methods including, but not limited to the following.
| Behavior | Testing Methods | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cognitive | Morris water maze test | Barnes maze test | Radial arm maze test |
| Y-maze test | T-maze test | 5-CSRTT test | |
| Touch screen test | |||
| Anxiety | Elevated plus maze test | Open field test | Light-dark box test |
| Sucrose preference test | Forced swimming test | Tail suspension test | |
| Social | Three-chamber test | Social interactions test | |
| Motor | Beam test | Rotarod test | General locomotor test |
| Gait analysis test | Pole test | Rearing cylinder test | |
| Ladder rung walking test | |||
Our company is committed to combining our specialized experimental platform and extensive scientific knowledge to jointly provide effective research models for the development of the field of neuroscience. If you are interested, please contact us and describe your specific research, and we will be happy to assist you.
References
- Schober, A. Classic toxin-induced animal models of Parkinson's disease: 6-OHDA and MPTP. Cell and tissue research. 2004, 318(1): 215-224.
- Recchia, A.; et al. α‐Synuclein and Parkinson's disease. The FASEB Journal. 2004, 18(6): 617-626.