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Brown RE. Measuring the replicability of our own research. J Neurosci Methods 2024; 406:110111. [PMID: 38521128 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2024.110111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2024] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/25/2024]
Abstract
In the study of transgenic mouse models of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, we use batteries of tests to measure deficits in behaviour and from the results of these tests, we make inferences about the mental states of the mice that we interpret as deficits in "learning", "memory", "anxiety", "depression", etc. This paper discusses the problems of determining whether a particular transgenic mouse is a valid mouse model of disease X, the problem of background strains, and the question of whether our behavioural tests are measuring what we say they are. The problem of the reliability of results is then discussed: are they replicable between labs and can we replicate our results in our own lab? This involves the study of intra- and inter- experimenter reliability. The variables that influence replicability and the importance of conducting a complete behavioural phenotype: sensory, motor, cognitive and social emotional behaviour are discussed. Then the thorny question of failure to replicate is examined: Is it a curse or a blessing? Finally, the role of failure in research and what it tells us about our research paradigms is examined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard E Brown
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.
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2
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Nigri M, Bramati G, Steiner AC, Wolfer DP. Appetitively motivated tasks in the IntelliCage reveal a higher motivational cost of spatial learning in male than female mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2024; 18:1270159. [PMID: 38487348 PMCID: PMC10938600 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1270159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024] Open
Abstract
The IntelliCage (IC) permits the assessment of the behavior and learning abilities of mice in a social home cage context. To overcome water deprivation as an aversive driver of learning, we developed protocols in which spatial learning is motivated appetitively by the preference of mice for sweetened over plain water. While plain water is available at all times, only correct task responses give access to sweetened water rewards. Under these conditions, C57BL/6J mice successfully mastered a corner preference task with the reversal and also learned a more difficult time-place task with reversal. However, the rate of responding to sweetened water decreased strongly with increasing task difficulty, indicating that learning challenges and reduced success in obtaining rewards decreased the motivation of the animals to seek sweetened water. While C57BL/6J mice of both sexes showed similar initial taste preferences and learned similarly well in simple learning tasks, the rate of responding to sweetened water and performance dropped more rapidly in male than in female mice in response to increasing learning challenges. Taken together, our data indicate that male mice can have a disadvantage relative to females in mastering difficult, appetitively motivated learning tasks, likely due to sex differences in value-based decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Nigri
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Giulia Bramati
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Adrian C. Steiner
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - David P. Wolfer
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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3
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Terry S, Gommet C, Kerangueven AC, Leguet M, Thévenin V, Berthelot M, Begoud L, Windenberger F, Lainee P. Activity in Group-Housed Home Cages of Mice as a Novel Preclinical Biomarker in Oncology Studies. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:4798. [PMID: 37835492 PMCID: PMC10571829 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15194798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Improving experimental conditions in preclinical animal research is a major challenge, both scientifically and ethically. Automated digital ventilated cages (DVC®) offer the advantage of continuous monitoring of animal activity in their home-cage. The potential utility of this technology remains understudied and deserves investigation in the field of oncology. METHODS Using the DVC® platform, we sought to determine if the continuous assessment of locomotor activity of mice in their home cages can serve as useful digital readout in the monitoring of animals treated with the reference oncology compounds cisplatin and cyclophosphamide. SCID mice of 14 weeks of age were housed in DVC® cages in groups of four and followed with standard and digital examination before and after treatment over a 17-day total period. RESULTS DVC® detected statistically significant effects of cisplatin on the activity of mice in the short and long term, as well as trends for cyclophosphamide. The activity differences between the vehicle- and chemotherapy-treated groups were especially marked during the nighttime, a period when animals are most active and staff are generally not available for regular checks. Standard clinical parameters, such as body weight change and clinical assessment during the day, provided additional and complementary information. CONCLUSION The DVC® technology enabled the home cage monitoring of mice and non-invasive detection of animal activity disturbances. It can easily be integrated into a multimodal monitoring approach to better capture the different effects of oncology drugs on anti-tumor efficacy, toxicity, and safety and improve translation to clinical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Céline Gommet
- Translational In Vivo Models—In Vivo Research Center Vitry, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (C.G.); (M.L.); (V.T.); (M.B.); (L.B.)
| | - Anne-Cécile Kerangueven
- Biostatistics & Programming, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (A.-C.K.); (F.W.)
| | - Mickaël Leguet
- Translational In Vivo Models—In Vivo Research Center Vitry, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (C.G.); (M.L.); (V.T.); (M.B.); (L.B.)
| | - Vincent Thévenin
- Translational In Vivo Models—In Vivo Research Center Vitry, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (C.G.); (M.L.); (V.T.); (M.B.); (L.B.)
| | - Mickaël Berthelot
- Translational In Vivo Models—In Vivo Research Center Vitry, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (C.G.); (M.L.); (V.T.); (M.B.); (L.B.)
| | - Laurent Begoud
- Translational In Vivo Models—In Vivo Research Center Vitry, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (C.G.); (M.L.); (V.T.); (M.B.); (L.B.)
| | - Fanny Windenberger
- Biostatistics & Programming, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (A.-C.K.); (F.W.)
| | - Pierre Lainee
- Translational In Vivo Models—In Vivo Research Center Vitry, Sanofi Research and Development, 94403 Vitry-sur-Seine, France; (C.G.); (M.L.); (V.T.); (M.B.); (L.B.)
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4
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Shemesh Y, Chen A. A paradigm shift in translational psychiatry through rodent neuroethology. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:993-1003. [PMID: 36635579 PMCID: PMC10005947 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01913-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2022] [Revised: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Mental disorders are a significant cause of disability worldwide. They profoundly affect individuals' well-being and impose a substantial financial burden on societies and governments. However, despite decades of extensive research, the effectiveness of current therapeutics for mental disorders is often not satisfactory or well tolerated by the patient. Moreover, most novel therapeutic candidates fail in clinical testing during the most expensive phases (II and III), which results in the withdrawal of pharma companies from investing in the field. It also brings into question the effectiveness of using animal models in preclinical studies to discover new therapeutic agents and predict their potential for treating mental illnesses in humans. Here, we focus on rodents as animal models and propose that they are essential for preclinical investigations of candidate therapeutic agents' mechanisms of action and for testing their safety and efficiency. Nevertheless, we argue that there is a need for a paradigm shift in the methodologies used to measure animal behavior in laboratory settings. Specifically, behavioral readouts obtained from short, highly controlled tests in impoverished environments and social contexts as proxies for complex human behavioral disorders might be of limited face validity. Conversely, animal models that are monitored in more naturalistic environments over long periods display complex and ethologically relevant behaviors that reflect evolutionarily conserved endophenotypes of translational value. We present how semi-natural setups in which groups of mice are individually tagged, and video recorded continuously can be attainable and affordable. Moreover, novel open-source machine-learning techniques for pose estimation enable continuous and automatic tracking of individual body parts in groups of rodents over long periods. The trajectories of each individual animal can further be subjected to supervised machine learning algorithms for automatic detection of specific behaviors (e.g., chasing, biting, or fleeing) or unsupervised automatic detection of behavioral motifs (e.g., stereotypical movements that might be harder to name or label manually). Compared to studies of animals in the wild, semi-natural environments are more compatible with neural and genetic manipulation techniques. As such, they can be used to study the neurobiological mechanisms underlying naturalistic behavior. Hence, we suggest that such a paradigm possesses the best out of classical ethology and the reductive behaviorist approach and may provide a breakthrough in discovering new efficient therapies for mental illnesses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yair Shemesh
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel
| | - Alon Chen
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel.
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel.
- Department of Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804, Munich, Germany.
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Neira S, Hassanein LA, Stanhope CM, Buccini MC, D’Ambrosio SL, Flanigan ME, Haun HL, Boyt KM, Bains JS, Kash TL. Chronic alcohol consumption alters home-cage behaviors and responses to ethologically relevant predator tasks in mice. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022; 46:1616-1629. [PMID: 35797227 PMCID: PMC9906815 DOI: 10.1111/acer.14901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Revised: 06/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alcohol withdrawal is a key component of severe alcohol use disorder. Animal models of alcohol withdrawal tend to focus on traditional anxiety/stress tests. While these have been essential to advancing our understanding of the biology of alcohol withdrawal, abrupt cessation of drinking following heavy alcohol consumption can also trigger withdrawal-related affective states that impact responses to a variety of life events and stressors. To this end, we show that behaviors in a variety of tasks that differ in task demand and intensity are altered during withdrawal in male and female mice after voluntary alcohol access. METHODS Male and female miceunderwent six weeks of intermittent two-bottle choice alcohol exposure followed by behavioral tests. The tests included-Home cage: low-stress baseline environment to measure spontaneous natural behaviors; Open field: anxiety-inducing bright novel environment; Looming disc: arena with a protective hut where mice are exposed to a series of discs that mimic an overhead advancing predator, and Robogator-simulated predator task: forced foraging behavioral choice in the presence of an advancing robot predator that "attacks" when mice are near a food pellet in a large open arena. RESULTS A history of alcohol exposure impacted behaviors in these tasks in a sex-dependent manner. In the home cage, alcohol induced reductions in digging and heightened stress coping through an increase in grooming time. In males, increased rearing yielded greater vigilance/exploration in a familiar environment. The open-field test revealed an anxiety phenotype in both male and female mice exposed to alcohol. Male mice showed no behavioral alterations to the looming disc task, while females exposed to alcohol showed greater escape responses than water controls, indicative of active stress-response behaviors. In males, the Robogator task revealed a hesitant/avoidant phenotype in alcohol-exposed mice under greater task demands. CONCLUSIONS Few drugs show robust evidence of efficacy in clinical trials for alcohol withdrawal. Understanding how withdrawal alters a variety of behaviors in both males and females that are linked to stress coping can increase our understanding of alcohol misuse and aid in developing better medications for treating individuals with AUD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Neira
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, Curriculum in Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Leslie A. Hassanein
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Christina M. Stanhope
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Michelle C. Buccini
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Shannon L. D’Ambrosio
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Meghan E. Flanigan
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Harold L. Haun
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Kristen M. Boyt
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Jaideep S. Bains
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute and Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Thomas L. Kash
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, Curriculum in Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
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6
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Abstract
Until recently laboratory tasks for studying behavior were highly artificial, simplified, and designed without consideration for the environmental or social context. Although such an approach offers good control over behavior, it does not allow for researching either voluntary responses or individual differences. Importantly for neuroscience studies, the activity of the neural circuits involved in producing unnatural, artificial behavior is variable and hard to predict. In addition, different ensembles may be activated depending on the strategy the animal adopts to deal with the spurious problem. Thus, artificial and simplified tasks based on responses, which do not occur spontaneously entail problems with modeling behavioral impairments and underlying brain deficits. To develop valid models of human disorders we need to test spontaneous behaviors consistently engaging well-defined, evolutionarily conserved neuronal circuits. Such research focuses on behavioral patterns relevant for surviving and thriving under varying environmental conditions, which also enable high reproducibility across different testing settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicja Puścian
- Nencki-EMBL Partnership for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders – BRAINCITY, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Pasteur 3 Street, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Ewelina Knapska
- Nencki-EMBL Partnership for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders – BRAINCITY, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Pasteur 3 Street, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
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7
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Do multiple experimenters improve the reproducibility of animal studies? PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001564. [PMID: 35511779 PMCID: PMC9070896 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The credibility of scientific research has been seriously questioned by the widely claimed “reproducibility crisis”. In light of this crisis, there is a growing awareness that the rigorous standardisation of experimental conditions may contribute to poor reproducibility of animal studies. Instead, systematic heterogenisation has been proposed as a tool to enhance reproducibility, but a real-life test across multiple independent laboratories is still pending. The aim of this study was therefore to test whether heterogenisation of experimental conditions by using multiple experimenters improves the reproducibility of research findings compared to standardised conditions with only one experimenter. To this end, we replicated the same animal experiment in 3 independent laboratories, each employing both a heterogenised and a standardised design. Whereas in the standardised design, all animals were tested by a single experimenter; in the heterogenised design, 3 different experimenters were involved in testing the animals. In contrast to our expectation, the inclusion of multiple experimenters in the heterogenised design did not improve the reproducibility of the results across the 3 laboratories. Interestingly, however, a variance component analysis indicated that the variation introduced by the different experimenters was not as high as the variation introduced by the laboratories, probably explaining why this heterogenisation strategy did not bring the anticipated success. Even more interestingly, for the majority of outcome measures, the remaining residual variation was identified as an important source of variance accounting for 41% (CI95 [34%, 49%]) to 72% (CI95 [58%, 88%]) of the observed total variance. Despite some uncertainty surrounding the estimated numbers, these findings argue for systematically including biological variation rather than eliminating it in animal studies and call for future research on effective improvement strategies. An experimenter heterogenisation was not sufficient to prevent idiosyncratic results in a multi-laboratory setting. Astonishingly, neither the experimenter nor the laboratory accounted for the main portion of the observed variation, but a high amount of residual variation in fact remained unexplained despite strict standardisation regimes.
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8
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Nigri M, Åhlgren J, Wolfer DP, Voikar V. Role of Environment and Experimenter in Reproducibility of Behavioral Studies With Laboratory Mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:835444. [PMID: 35250504 PMCID: PMC8895324 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.835444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Behavioral phenotyping of mice has received a great deal of attention during the past three decades. However, there is still a pressing need to understand the variability caused by environmental and biological factors, human interference, and poorly standardized experimental protocols. The inconsistency of results is often attributed to the inter-individual difference between the experimenters and environmental conditions. The present work aims to dissect the combined influence of the experimenter and the environment on the detection of behavioral traits in two inbred strains most commonly used in behavioral genetics due to their contrasting phenotypes, the C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. To this purpose, the elevated O-maze, the open field with object, the accelerating rotarod and the Barnes maze tests were performed by two experimenters in two diverse laboratory environments. Our findings confirm the well-characterized behavioral differences between these strains in exploratory behavior, motor performance, learning and memory. Moreover, the results demonstrate how the experimenter and the environment influence the behavioral tests with a variable-dependent effect, often with mutually exclusive contributions. In this context, our study highlights how both the experimenter and the environment can have an impact on the strain effect size without altering the direction of the conclusions. Importantly, the general agreement on the results is reached by converging evidence from multiple measures addressing the same trait. In conclusion, the present work elucidates the contribution of both the experimenter and the laboratory environment in the intricate field of reproducibility in mouse behavioral phenotyping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Nigri
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- *Correspondence: Martina Nigri,
| | - Johanna Åhlgren
- Laboratory Animal Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - David P. Wolfer
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Vootele Voikar
- Laboratory Animal Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Neuroscience Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Vootele Voikar,
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9
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Baran SW, Bratcher N, Dennis J, Gaburro S, Karlsson EM, Maguire S, Makidon P, Noldus LPJJ, Potier Y, Rosati G, Ruiter M, Schaevitz L, Sweeney P, LaFollette MR. Emerging Role of Translational Digital Biomarkers Within Home Cage Monitoring Technologies in Preclinical Drug Discovery and Development. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 15:758274. [PMID: 35242017 PMCID: PMC8885444 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.758274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/29/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In drug discovery and development, traditional assessment of human patients and preclinical subjects occurs at limited time points in potentially stressful surroundings (i.e., the clinic or a test arena), which can impact data quality and welfare. However, recent advances in remote digital monitoring technologies enable the assessment of human patients and preclinical subjects across multiple time points in familiar surroundings. The ability to monitor a patient throughout disease progression provides an opportunity for more relevant and efficient diagnosis as well as improved assessment of drug efficacy and safety. In preclinical in vivo animal models, these digital technologies allow for continuous, longitudinal, and non-invasive monitoring in the home environment. This manuscript provides an overview of digital monitoring technologies for use in preclinical studies including their history and evolution, current engagement through use cases, and impact of digital biomarkers (DBs) on drug discovery and the 3Rs. We also discuss barriers to implementation and strategies to overcome them. Finally, we address data consistency and technology standards from the perspective of technology providers, end-users, and subject matter experts. Overall, this review establishes an improved understanding of the value and implementation of digital biomarker (DB) technologies in preclinical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Szczepan W. Baran
- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, MA, United States
- *Correspondence: Szczepan W. Baran,
| | - Natalie Bratcher
- Office of Global Animal Welfare, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, United States
| | - John Dennis
- United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | | | | | - Sean Maguire
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
| | - Paul Makidon
- Comparative Medicine, AbbVie, South San Francisco, CA, United States
| | - Lucas P. J. J. Noldus
- Noldus Information Technology BV, Wageningen, Netherlands
- Department of Biophysics, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Yohann Potier
- Tessera Therapeutics Inc., Cambridge, MA, United States
| | | | - Matt Ruiter
- Unified Information Devices Inc., Lake Villa, IL, United States
| | - Laura Schaevitz
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Patrick Sweeney
- Actual Analytics Ltd., Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Naason Science, Inc., Cheongju-si, South Korea
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10
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Chen S, Siedhoff HR, Zhang H, Liu P, Balderrama A, Li R, Johnson C, Greenlief CM, Koopmans B, Hoffman T, DePalma RG, Li DP, Cui J, Gu Z. Low-intensity blast induces acute glutamatergic hyperexcitability in mouse hippocampus leading to long-term learning deficits and altered expression of proteins involved in synaptic plasticity and serine protease inhibitors. Neurobiol Dis 2022; 165:105634. [PMID: 35077822 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2022.105634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Revised: 01/11/2022] [Accepted: 01/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Neurocognitive consequences of blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) pose significant concerns for military service members and veterans with the majority of "invisible injury." However, the underlying mechanism of such mild bTBI by low-intensity blast (LIB) exposure for long-term cognitive and mental deficits remains elusive. Our previous studies have shown that mice exposed to LIB result in nanoscale ultrastructural abnormalities in the absence of gross or apparent cellular damage in the brain. Here we tested the hypothesis that glutamatergic hyperexcitability may contribute to long-term learning deficits. Using brain slice electrophysiological recordings, we found an increase in averaged frequencies with a burst pattern of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) in hippocampal CA3 neurons in LIB-exposed mice at 1- and 7-days post injury, which was blocked by a specific NMDA receptor antagonist AP5. In addition, cognitive function assessed at 3-months post LIB exposure by automated home-cage monitoring showed deficits in dynamic patterns of discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility in LIB-exposed mice. Collected hippocampal tissue was further processed for quantitative global-proteomic analysis. Advanced data-independent acquisition for quantitative tandem mass spectrometry analysis identified altered expression of proteins involved in synaptic plasticity and serine protease inhibitors in LIB-exposed mice. Some were correlated with the ability of discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility. These findings show that acute glutamatergic hyperexcitability in the hippocampus induced by LIB may contribute to long-term cognitive dysfunction and protein alterations. Studies using this military-relevant mouse model of mild bTBI provide valuable insights into developing a potential therapeutic strategy to ameliorate hyperexcitability-modulated LIB injuries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shanyan Chen
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Heather R Siedhoff
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Hua Zhang
- Department of Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Pei Liu
- Charles W. Gehrke Proteomics Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
| | - Ashley Balderrama
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Runting Li
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Catherine Johnson
- Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA
| | - C Michael Greenlief
- Charles W. Gehrke Proteomics Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
| | | | - Timothy Hoffman
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Ralph G DePalma
- Office of Research and Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington DC 20420, USA; Department of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
| | - De-Pei Li
- Department of Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
| | - Jiankun Cui
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA.
| | - Zezong Gu
- Truman VA Hospital Research Service, Columbia, MO 65201, USA; Department of Pathology & Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, USA.
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11
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Siedhoff HR, Chen S, Balderrama A, Sun GY, Koopmans B, DePalma RG, Cui J, Gu Z. Long-Term Effects of Low-Intensity Blast Non-Inertial Brain Injury on Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Mice: Home-Cage Monitoring Assessments. Neurotrauma Rep 2022; 3:27-38. [PMID: 35141713 PMCID: PMC8820222 DOI: 10.1089/neur.2021.0063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Mild traumatic brain injury induced by low-intensity blast (LIB) exposure poses concerns in military personnel. Using an open-field, non-inertial blast model and assessments by conventional behavioral tests, our previous studies revealed early-phase anxiety-like behaviors in LIB-exposed mice. However, the impact of LIB upon long-term anxiety-like behaviors requires clarification. This study applied a highly sensitive automated home-cage monitoring (HCM) system, which minimized human intervention and environmental changes, to assess anxiety-like responses in mice 3 months after LIB exposure. Initial assessment of 72-h spontaneous activities in a natural cage condition over multiple light and dark phases showed altered sheltering behaviors. LIB-exposed mice exhibited a subtle, but significantly decreased, duration of short shelter visits as compared to sham controls. Other measured responses between LIB-exposed mice and sham controls were insignificant. When behavioral assessments were performed in a challenged condition using an aversive spotlight, LIB-exposed mice demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of movements of shorter distance and duration per movement. Taken together, these findings demonstrated the presence of chronic anxiety-like behaviors assessed by the HCM system under both natural and challenged conditions in mice occurring post-LIB exposure. This model thus provides a platform to test for screening and interventions on anxiety disorders occurring after LIB non-inertial brain injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather R. Siedhoff
- Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital Research Service, Columbia, Missouri, USA
- Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Shanyan Chen
- Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital Research Service, Columbia, Missouri, USA
- Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Ashley Balderrama
- Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital Research Service, Columbia, Missouri, USA
- Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Grace Y. Sun
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | | | - Ralph G. DePalma
- Office of Research and Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA; Department of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Jiankun Cui
- Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital Research Service, Columbia, Missouri, USA
- Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Zezong Gu
- Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital Research Service, Columbia, Missouri, USA
- Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri, USA
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Mieske P, Diederich K, Lewejohann L. Roaming in a Land of Milk and Honey: Life Trajectories and Metabolic Rate of Female Inbred Mice Living in a Semi Naturalistic Environment. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11103002. [PMID: 34680021 PMCID: PMC8532919 DOI: 10.3390/ani11103002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite tremendous efforts at standardization, the results of scientific studies can vary greatly, especially when considering animal research. It is important to emphasize that consistent different personality-like traits emerge and accumulate over time in laboratory mice despite genetic and environmental standardization. To understand to what extent variability can unfold over time, we conducted a long-term study using inbred mice living in an exceptionally complex environment comprising an area of 4.6 m2 spread over five levels. In this semi-naturalistic environment (SNE) the activity and spatial distribution of 20 female C57Bl/6J was recorded by radio-frequency identification (RFID). All individuals were monitored from an age of 11 months to 22 months and their individual pattern of spatial movement in time is described as roaming entropy. Overall, we detected an increase of diversification in roaming behavior over time with stabilizing activity patterns at the individual level. However, spontaneous behavior of the animals as well as physiological parameters did not correlate with cumulative roaming entropy. Moreover, the amount of variability did not exceed the literature data derived from mice living in restricted conventional laboratory conditions. We conclude that even taking quantum leaps towards improving animal welfare does not inevitably mean a setback in terms of data quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Mieske
- German Center for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Straße 8-10, 10589 Berlin, Germany; (K.D.); (L.L.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Kai Diederich
- German Center for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Straße 8-10, 10589 Berlin, Germany; (K.D.); (L.L.)
| | - Lars Lewejohann
- German Center for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Straße 8-10, 10589 Berlin, Germany; (K.D.); (L.L.)
- Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Institute of Animal Welfare, Freie Universität Berlin, Königsweg 67, 14163 Berlin, Germany
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van der Goot MH, Kooij M, Stolte S, Baars A, Arndt SS, van Lith HA. Incorporating inter-individual variability in experimental design improves the quality of results of animal experiments. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0255521. [PMID: 34351958 PMCID: PMC8341614 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Inter-individual variability in quantitative traits is believed to potentially inflate the quality of results in animal experimentation. Yet, to our knowledge this effect has not been empirically tested. Here we test whether inter-individual variability in emotional response within mouse inbred strains affects the outcome of a pharmacological experiment. Three mouse inbred strains (BALB/c, C57BL/6 and 129S2) were behaviorally characterized through repeated exposure to a mild aversive stimulus (modified Hole Board, five consecutive trials). A multivariate clustering procedure yielded two multidimensional response types which were displayed by individuals of all three strains. We show that systematic incorporation of these individual response types in the design of a pharmacological experiment produces different results from an experimental pool in which this variation was not accounted for. To our knowledge, this is the first study that empirically confirms that inter-individual variability affects the interpretation of behavioral phenotypes and may obscure experimental results in a pharmacological experiment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marloes H. van der Goot
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Section Animals in Science and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Marieke Kooij
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Section Animals in Science and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Suzanne Stolte
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Section Animals in Science and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Annemarie Baars
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Section Animals in Science and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Saskia S. Arndt
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Section Animals in Science and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Hein A. van Lith
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department Population Health Sciences, Section Animals in Science and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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van der Goot MH, Keijsper M, Baars A, Drost L, Hendriks J, Kirchhoff S, Lozeman-van T Klooster JG, van Lith HA, Arndt SS. Inter-individual variability in habituation of anxiety-related responses within three mouse inbred strains. Physiol Behav 2021; 239:113503. [PMID: 34153326 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113503] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 03/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Inter-individual variability in behavioral and physiological response has become a well-established phenomenon in animal models of anxiety and other disorders. Such variability is even demonstrated within mouse inbred strains. A recent study showed that adaptive and non-adaptive anxiety phenotypes (measured as habituation and/or sensitization of anxiety responses) may differ within cohorts of 129 mice. This variability was expressed across both anxiety- and activity-related behavioral dimensions. These findings were based however on re-analysis of previously published data. The present study therefore aimed to empirically validate these findings in 129 mice. In addition, we assessed such inter-individuality in two other strains: BALB/c and C57BL/6. Males of three mouse inbred strains (BALB/c, C57BL/6 and 129S2) were behaviorally characterized through repeated exposure to a mild aversive stimulus (modified Hole Board, 4 consecutive trials). Behavioral observations were supplemented with assessment of circulating corticosterone levels. Clustering the individual response trajectories of behavioral and endocrine responses yielded two multidimensional response types of different adaptive value. Interestingly, these response types were displayed by individuals of all three strains. The response types differed significantly on anxiety and activity related behavioral dimensions but not on corticosterone concentrations. This study empirically confirms that adaptive capacities may differ within 129 cohorts. In addition, it extends this inter-individual variability in behavioral profiles to BALB/c and C57BL/6. Whether these two sub-types constitute differential anxiety phenotypes may differ per strain and requires further study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marloes H van der Goot
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
| | - Melissa Keijsper
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Annemarie Baars
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Lisa Drost
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Judith Hendriks
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Susanne Kirchhoff
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - José G Lozeman-van T Klooster
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Hein A van Lith
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Saskia S Arndt
- Section Animals in Science and Society, Department Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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Cisbani G, Poggini S, Laflamme N, Pons V, Tremblay MÈ, Branchi I, Rivest S. The Intellicage system provides a reproducible and standardized method to assess behavioral changes in cuprizone-induced demyelination mouse model. Behav Brain Res 2020; 400:113039. [PMID: 33279637 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.113039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2020] [Revised: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by myelin loss in the brain parenchyma. To mimic the disease, mice are fed a cuprizone-supplemented diet for 5 weeks, which leads to demyelination of white and grey matter regions, with the corpus callosum being the most susceptible to cuprizone intoxication. Although this model is highly exploited, classical behavioural tests showed inconsistent results. OBJECTIVE In our study, we aimed to use the automated system Intellicage to phenotype the behaviour of cuprizone-fed mice. METHODS Mice were continuously monitored during the 5 weeks of intoxication in their home cages, with minimal interference from the experimenter. Mice were assessed for spontaneous activity, fine movements, and impulsivity. RESULTS Consistently, cuprizone-fed mice showed reduced activity and impulsivity throughout the test period. These behavioral results were confirmed by repeating the battery of behavioral tests in a second cohort of cuprizone-fed mice. Our results suggest that the behavioural phenotyping of cuprizone-fed mice using Intellicage is reproducible and sensitive enough to detect changes normally missed in standard behavioral test batteries. CONCLUSION Using a reproducible and standardized method to assess behavioral changes in mice intoxicated with cuprizone is crucial to better understand the disease as well as the functional outcome of treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Cisbani
- CHU de Québec Research Center and Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, 2705 Laurier Boul., Québec City, QC, G1V 4G2, Canada
| | - Silvia Poggini
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161, Roma, Italy
| | - Nataly Laflamme
- CHU de Québec Research Center and Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, 2705 Laurier Boul., Québec City, QC, G1V 4G2, Canada
| | - Vincent Pons
- CHU de Québec Research Center and Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, 2705 Laurier Boul., Québec City, QC, G1V 4G2, Canada
| | - Marie-Ève Tremblay
- CHU de Québec Research Center and Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, 2705 Laurier Boul., Québec City, QC, G1V 4G2, Canada; Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2, Canada
| | - Igor Branchi
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161, Roma, Italy
| | - Serge Rivest
- CHU de Québec Research Center and Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, 2705 Laurier Boul., Québec City, QC, G1V 4G2, Canada.
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