Services to Pharmaceutical companies

OptoPath offers a range of validated animal models that closely mimic major human psychopathologies. Several services based on the use of these experimental models and OptoPath innovative equipment can be provided to both pharmaceutical industries and academies. Starting from your drug discovery project, we can tailor the experimental design to your specific needs.

DRUG ABUSE – DRUG ADDICTION

Using complementary procedures of a gold standard model, i.e. intravenous self-administration in rodents, we evaluate the addictive risk of new psychoactive compounds (a legal prerequisite for marketing authorization) as well as the anti-addiction potential of new compounds.

SAFADD-Products : Safety tests in the context of Addiction

• SAFADD 1 :  Evaluation of the abuse liability of new psychoactive drugs in rodents

THERAPADD-Products: Therapeutic tests in the context of Addiction

• THERAPADD 1 : Evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of tobacco use-related disorders

•  THERAPADD 2 : Evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of cocaine addiction in rodents

• THERAPADD 2A : Test Cocaine (Moderate use)
• THERAPADD 2B : Test Cocaine
• THERAPADD 2C : Test Cocaine

• THERAPADD 3 : Evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of heroin addiction in rodents

FEAR-RELATED MEMORIES - PTSD

Using complementary behavioral and high tech in vivo electrophysiology procedures, with high face and construct validities, we evaluate the therapeutic potential of new compounds in the context of PTSD.

FEAR-Products: Therapeutic tests in the context of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• FEAR 1 : Evaluation of the potential of new psychoactive compounds in normalizing neurobiological markers of pathological fear memories in rodents

OBESITY

Because of the lack of experimental approaches resembling closely human eating behavior, we have developed a novel experimental set-up that allows studying animal feeding behavior in conditions resembling the human situation. Thus, the associated phenotypic characterization is expected to shed light on the mechanisms underscoring vulnerability or resistance to obesity, providing critical insight into the physiopathological mechanisms leading to the disease.

Therapeutic test in the context of Obesity

• OBE 1 : Evaluation of the acute and chronic actions of new compounds on energy balance regulation in rodents using a comprehensive behavioral and metabolic approach

Diagnosis / Phenotyping Test in the context of Obesity

• OBE 2 : A new computer-based tool to evaluate food-related hedonic and motivational states in humans : a new phenotyping test in the context of obesity

MEMORY DEFICITS

Memory degrades in aging and early phases of the major form of age-related neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer’s disease. The degradation concerns both short-term and long-term memory components. Regarding long-term memory, the two major forms declining in aging are declarative and spatial memory, both of which are characterized by flexible expression. In this context, we propose rodent models that allow evaluating the different memory components degrading in aging, i.e. short-term memory maintenance and updating, as well as long-term memory flexibility, and testing the negative and positive effects of new psychoactive compounds on these functions. These tests are performed using Morris water-maze task in rats.

SAFMEM-Products: Safety tests in the context of memory

• SAFMEM2B : Evaluation of the deleterious effects of new compounds on long term working spatial memory in rodents.

THERAPMEM-Products: Therapeutic tests in the context of Alzheimer Disease

• THERAPMEM 2 : Evaluation of the pro-memory effect of new compounds on long term working spatial memory in rodents.