Anxiety/Depression and Social Interaction Evaluation
Anxiety is characterized as a heightened state of arousal and vigilance that occurs in the absence of an immediate threat. Although it may have evolved as an adaptive behavioral state, anxiety can become pathological when it is no longer an appropriate response to a given situation. Anxiety contains a wide spectrum of disease states, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Phobias, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Current pharmacological treatment approaches for social anxiety disorder and autism spectrum disorders utilize drugs which are also used to treat other psychiatric disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression).
Rodent models of anxiety have been a useful tool in this regard as they have been shown to have both face validity and predictive validity and have led to mechanistic and potential therapeutic insights. In order to study anxiety-like behaviors in rodents, a variety of tests and strategies have been employed in Creative Bioarray.
Fig. 1 Projections from the BLA to the vHPC bidirectionally modulate anxiety-related behaviors as well as social interaction.
There is a full range of assays for evaluating the development of compounds used to treat anxiety and mood disorders in Creative Bioarray. All these assays include the 'gold standard' assays that show high predictive validity, as well as newer approaches that are being researched and identified.
Our assays include but not limited as followings:
Open field arena
Evaluated Plus Maze
Elevated Zero Maze
Light Dark Box
Tail Suspension
Novelty suppressed feeding
Forced swim
Chemical-Induced Stress
Force Swim Test (Model of Stress or Depression)
Head Twitch Model
Marble Burying
SocialFunctions
Social Interaction
Three Chamber Test
Reference
Allsop SA, et al. Optogenetic insights on the relationship between anxiety-related behaviors and social deficits. Front. Behav. Neurosci.2014; 8: 241.
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