Repeated treatment with a low dose of reserpine as a progressive model of Parkinson's disease

Animal models are widely used to study alterations caused by Parkinson's disease (PD). However, in general, pharmacological models do not express the progressive nature of the disease, being characterized by immediate severe motor impairment after a single dose of the drug. Reserpine administration in rodents has been suggested as a pharmacological model of PD based on the effects of this monoamine-depleting agent on motor activity. Here, we describe that repeated administration with a low dose (0.1 mg/kg) of reserpine in rats induces a gradual appearance of motor signs, evaluated by catalepsy behavior. Furthermore, these motor signs are accompanied by increased levels of striatal lipid peroxidation. However, treatment with reserpine failed to induce memory impairments (evaluated by novel object recognition and discriminative avoidance tasks) and alterations in hippocampal lipid peroxidation. Thus, repeated treatment with low doses of reserpine progressively induces alterations in motor function and an increase in striatal oxidative stress, indicating a possible application of this model in the study of the neuroprogressive nature of the motor signs in PD.

► Repeated treatment with reserpine induces a gradual appearance of motor alterations in rats.
► Motor alterations are accompanied by increased levels striatal oxidative stress.
► Repeated reserpine protocol has a possible application in the study of the neuroprogressive nature of Parkinson's disease.