Preclinical models of mental illness are essential for the development of new types of psychiatry. In recent years, the progress in the identification of risk genes has provided unprecedented opportunities for the development of animal models for the study of psychosis, to achieve transformation effect and finally developing new therapeutic methods.
Background of Models for Psychiatric Disorders
Psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia, are extremely heritable and complex genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. The characteristics of psychiatric disorders are very complex at the genomic level, in the form of DNA replication mutations, multiple gene interactions and epigenetic reprogramming. In addition to increasing this complexity, genes, proteins, and metabolites are also affected by multi-dimensional interactions with environmental factors, resulting in unpredictable and uncontrollable effects on behavioral phenotypes. In order to lay the foundation for the development of psychiatric disorders research, we must better understand the pathophysiology of these diseases, including improving our understanding of disease heterogeneity.
Strategies of Preclinical Models at Creative Biolabs
Based on our accumulated experience and continuous learning, Creative Biolabs has gained a lot in the development of preclinical models of psychiatric disorders. At present, we offer in vivo and in vitro models to clients to choose from:
Current rodent models can replicate the etiologies, brain pathologies and behavioral abnormalities of human psychiatric disorders. Here, the models are divided into three types: stress-induced, drug-induced and genetic to reflect the heterogeneous risk factors associated with psychosis. Each of these models is associated with different but overlapping pathophysiology, endophenotypes, behavioral disorders, and cognitive impairment. The use of multiple models to study psychosis will help to understand the core characteristics of the disease, thus facilitating preclinical studies aimed at developing and validating better drug therapies to change the progression of psychosis or reduce its debilitating symptoms.
Fig.1 Animal models of depression. (Planchez, 2019)
Although there is little understanding of psychiatric disorders at the molecular and cellular levels, it is now considered a developmental disorder. Therefore, human cell-based models represent the known genetic background leading to these neurological diseases and may be the best way to identify neuronal defects associated with these diseases. The human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)- and iNeuron-based methods may simplify the whole brain diseases such as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder into cell and network components, which will help us understand these diseases.
Features of Our Services
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Reliable & Professional: rich professional knowledge and experience accumulation;
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Satisfaction assurance: multiple psychiatric models allow our clients to choose the most appropriate model to test promising compounds and optimize potential candidates;
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Save time and cost effectiveness: free inquiry & 24 x 7 customer services.
For more detailed information, please feel free to contact us.
Reference
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Planchez, B.; et al. Animal models of major depression: drawbacks and challenges. Journal of Neural Transmission. 2019, 126(11): 1383-1408. Distributed under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.
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