Ablation of fast-spiking interneurons in the dorsal striatum, recapitulating abnormalities seen post-mortem in Tourette syndrome, produces anxiety and elevated grooming

• Tourette syndrome is associated with reduced interneurons in the striatum.
• We performed targeted ablation of parvalbumin neurons in the striatum in adult mice.
• Interneuronal ablation produced increased grooming after acute stress.
• Interneuronal ablation also produced elevated anxiety-like behavior.
• This supports a causal contribution of interneuronal deficits to movement disorders.

Tic disorders, including Tourette syndrome (TS), are thought to involve pathology of cortico-basal ganglia loops, but their pathology is not well understood. Post-mortem studies have shown a reduced number of several populations of striatal interneurons, including the parvalbumin-expressing fast-spiking interneurons (FSIs), in individuals with severe, refractory TS. We tested the causal role of this interneuronal deficit by recapitulating it in an otherwise normal adult mouse using a combination transgenic-viral cell ablation approach. FSIs were reduced bilaterally by ∼40%, paralleling the deficit found post-mortem. This did not produce spontaneous stereotypies or tic-like movements, but there was increased stereotypic grooming after acute stress in two validated paradigms. Stereotypy after amphetamine, in contrast, was not elevated. FSI ablation also led to increased anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze, but not to alterations in motor learning on the rotorod or to alterations in prepulse inhibition, a measure of sensorimotor gating. These findings indicate that a striatal FSI deficit can produce stress-triggered repetitive movements and anxiety. These repetitive movements may recapitulate aspects of the pathophysiology of tic disorders.