RESUMEN
An emerging area in schizophrenia research focuses on the impact of immunomodulatory drugs such as melatonin, which have played important roles in many biological systems and functions, and appears to be promising. The objective was to evaluate the effect of melatonin on behavioral parameters in an animal model of schizophrenia. For this, Wistar rats were divided and used in two different protocols. In the prevention protocol, the animals received 1 or 10mg/kg of melatonin or water for 14 days, and between the 8th and 14th day they received ketamine or saline. In the reversal protocol, the opposite occurred. On the 14th day, the animals underwent behavioral tests: locomotor activity and prepulse inhibition task. In both protocols, the results revealed that ketamine had effects on locomotor activity and prepulse inhibition, confirming the validity of ketamine construction as a good animal model of schizophrenia. However, at least at the doses used, melatonin was not able to reverse/prevent ketamine damage. More studies are necessary to evaluate the role of melatonin as an adjuvant treatment in psychiatric disorders.
Asunto(s)
Suplementos Dietéticos , Melatonina , Esquizofrenia , Animales , Conducta Animal , Modelos Animales de Enfermedad , Melatonina/farmacología , Ratas , Ratas Wistar , Roedores , Esquizofrenia/tratamiento farmacológicoRESUMEN
Early childhood schizophrenia (COS) is a rare condition and has no established animal model to test new treatments. Previous studies have shown that repeated doses of 25â¯mg/kg ketamine produce schizophrenia-like changes in adult male Wistar rats, but adequate doses of ketamine in animal COS studies are not yet known. Male and female Wistar rats, 23 days old, received an injection of ketamine or intraperitoneal saline (i.p.) for 8 days. The animals underwent different behavioral tests: open field, social interaction, pre-pulse startle inhibition (PPI). Female rats showed behavioral changes at all ketamine doses (5, 15, 25 and 50â¯mg/kg), in contrast to males that only at 50â¯mg/kg dose had interrupted PPI and higher stereotypy in the open field test. The present study demonstrated that ketamine at a dose of 50â¯mg/kg once daily from 23 to 31 days postnatal reproduced changes similar to schizophrenia in pre-pubertal male and female Wistar rats and could be used, with other interventions, in future studies with animals in COS.