Central nervous system safety

Related services

• Toxicity and safety models
• Metabolites in safety testing (MIST)
• CYP identification, inhibition and induction
• Metabolite identification and stability
• Pre-clinical pharmacokinetics
• ONTOMINE - In silico bioactivity, adverse effect and toxicity screening for small molecules and metabolites
• ONTOMINE ADME - In silico models for logP, logD, logS, pKa

Modified Irwin's test (Functional observation battery)

Modified Irwin test in mice is used to evaluate the effects of a test item on behavior and physiological function. Irwin test can also be used for detecting acute neurotoxicity.

The following parameters are measured from the animals

• Autonomic function (lacrimation, salivation, diarrhoea, piloerection, respiration rate)
• Awareness (hyporeactivity, hyperreactivity, aggressiveness, vocalization)
• Motor activity (catalepsy, hypoactivity, hyperactivity, stereotypy, convulsion)
• Motor coordination/tone (gait, tremor)
• Rectal temperature

Please follow this link to retrieve a detailed fact sheet of the Modified Irwin's test

Locomotor activity

Unwanted side effects on the nervous system are commonly seen both in clinical trials of new drug and during therapeutic use of marketed products. They have accounted for 10% of all drugs of all drugs withdrawn from market during period 1960-‐1990.
Please follow this link to retrieve a detailed fact sheet of the Locomotor activity test

Locomotor coordination (rota-rod)

Rotarod test provides an estimation of the animal’s level of neuromuscular coordination. Drugs which are known to disturb/perturb neuromuscular coordination clearly reduce the time the animals stay on the rod. Locomotor coordination is most commonly assesses using a Rotarod test.
Please follow this link to retrieve a detailed fact sheet of the Locomotor coordination (rota-rod) test

Short term memory - Radial maze test

Radial maze test provides an easy way to study the effects of drugs, brain damage, or diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, on spatial learning and memory in rodents. A hungry rat is placed in the centre of the maze and can find food at the end of teach arm. An ideal performance during a trial would be for the animal to visit each arm once to collect food. Therefore this task requires that, the animal remembers the arms already visited (short-‐term or working memory). In the modified version of the test, long-‐term or reference memory can also be assessed by having a restricted number of arms baited, but always the same.
Please follow this link to retrieve a detailed fact sheet of the Short term memory - Radial maze test

Body temperature

Recording of the body temperature (rectal temperature) can be done along with the behavioural observations or this study can be conducted as independent study. The changes in the body temperature after the drug administration can provide useful information, if analysed properly with other parameters.
Please follow this link to retrieve a detailed fact sheet of the Body temperature test

Other CNS safety tests

In addition, we provide our customers with the following other CNS safety tests

• Analgesic activity
• Anconvulsant activity
• Proconvulsant activity
• Pentobarbitone induced sleeping

For more information, contact us from this link.