Animal models of disease pathophysiology are essential tools in the investigation of complex disorders, both testing etiological hypotheses and serving as a platform for the development of novel therapeutic strategies. However, valid and useful animal models of psychiatric conditions have been difficult to develop, because of the complex nature of their symptomatology and their multitudinous and poorly understood causes. Here we propose a new approach to the development of pathophysiologically grounded models of complex psychiatric disease. Rather than base a model on superficial phenotypic resemblance to the symptoms of a disorder, on response to currently used medications, or on putative causative factors of small effect (such as disease-associated alleles of candidate genes), we propose to base a model on recent post-mortem findings. This approach has significant advantages. First, the effect size of abnormalities seen in postmortem studies is necessarily large, because sample size is necessarily small (in contrast to the real but small effects that can be found in huge genetic studies);basing a model on an abnormality of large effect is more likely to produce disease-relevant downstream consequences. Second, the approach is neutral with respect to etiology;insight into the core features of complex disorders can be generated by modeling core pathophysiological features rather than individual hypothesized causes. Finally, the technical approach we have developed allows flexibility in the timing and extent of the neuronal lesion that underlies the model, and is generalizable to other important neurobiological questions and modeling of other psychiatric conditions. We apply this conceptual approach to the modeling of Tourette syndrome (TS) based on neuropathological findings from the Vaccarino lab, which is collaborating on the current studies. In a pair of recent papers they have documented a reduction of certain key populations of interneurons in the striatum, a structure previously implicated in TS. We will use transgenic and viral reagents to produce an equivalent ablation of these interneurons in mice. These animals will then be tested in behavioral analyses of specific relevance to TS, including prepulse inhibition and striatum-dependent procedural learning;the effect of medications with anti- Tourettic efficacy on observed behavioral abnormalities will be investigated. Finally, since the symptomatology of TS typically waxes and wanes over ontogeny, we will probe the developmental trajectory of the effects of interneuronal ablation by inducing it in young animals and assaying behavior in adolescence and adulthood. These studies serve several important purposes. First, they provide proof of concept for an innovative strategy to modeling the pathphysiology of mental illness. Second, they probe a specific hypothesis of TS, and potentially provide a platform for the development of novel therapeutics. Third, consistent with the goals of the B.R.A.I.N.S. RFA, they provide critical support to an innovative young investigator and his efforts to apply new, sophisiticated methodologies to core problems in the biological study of mental illness.

Public Health Relevance

Animal models of the mechanisms of disease are a critical tool for understanding the mechanisms of complex diseases and for developing new therapies;unfortunately, producing useful models of major psychiatric disorders has proven a daunting challenge, and progress has been slow. Here we describe a new strategy to the development of such models of complex brain disorders, by using molecular tools in mice to reproduce the changes found in post-mortem studies of the brains of patients. This approach is developed in the specific case of Tourette syndrome;but the principal and many of the technical aspects of our approach are generalizable to the modeling and investigation of other neuropsychiatric conditions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH091861-02
Application #
8109404
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-ERB-L (04))
Program Officer
Winsky, Lois M
Project Start
2010-07-10
Project End
2015-06-30
Budget Start
2011-07-01
Budget End
2012-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$293,365
Indirect Cost
Name
Yale University
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
043207562
City
New Haven
State
CT
Country
United States
Zip Code
06520
Xu, J; Hartley, B J; Kurup, P et al. (2018) Inhibition of STEP61 ameliorates deficits in mouse and hiPSC-based schizophrenia models. Mol Psychiatry 23:271-281
Frick, Luciana R; Rapanelli, Maximiliano; Jindachomthong, Kantiya et al. (2018) Differential binding of antibodies in PANDAS patients to cholinergic interneurons in the striatum. Brain Behav Immun 69:304-311
Rapanelli, Maximiliano; Frick, Luciana; Jindachomthong, Kantiya et al. (2018) Striatal Signaling Regulated by the H3R Histamine Receptor in a Mouse Model of tic Pathophysiology. Neuroscience 392:172-179
Rapanelli, M; Frick, L; Pogorelov, V et al. (2017) Histamine H3R receptor activation in the dorsal striatum triggers stereotypies in a mouse model of tic disorders. Transl Psychiatry 7:e1013
Rapanelli, Maximiliano; Frick, Luciana Romina; Xu, Meiyu et al. (2017) Targeted Interneuron Depletion in the Dorsal Striatum Produces Autism-like Behavioral Abnormalities in Male but Not Female Mice. Biol Psychiatry 82:194-203
Rapanelli, Maximiliano; Frick, Luciana; Bito, Haruhiko et al. (2017) Histamine modulation of the basal ganglia circuitry in the development of pathological grooming. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:6599-6604
Keistler, Colby R; Hammarlund, Emma; Barker, Jacqueline M et al. (2017) Regulation of Alcohol Extinction and Cue-Induced Reinstatement by Specific Projections among Medial Prefrontal Cortex, Nucleus Accumbens, and Basolateral Amygdala. J Neurosci 37:4462-4471
Rapanelli, Maximiliano; Frick, Luciana Romina; Pittenger, Christopher (2017) The Role of Interneurons in Autism and Tourette Syndrome. Trends Neurosci 40:397-407
Xu, M; Li, L; Pittenger, C (2016) Ablation of fast-spiking interneurons in the dorsal striatum, recapitulating abnormalities seen post-mortem in Tourette syndrome, produces anxiety and elevated grooming. Neuroscience 324:321-9
Frick, Luciana; Rapanelli, Maximiliano; Abbasi, Eeman et al. (2016) Histamine regulation of microglia: Gene-environment interaction in the regulation of central nervous system inflammation. Brain Behav Immun 57:326-337

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