Ace Therapeutics is a leading biological contract research organization (CRO) with many years of experience in modeling psychiatric disorders. We are dedicated to providing customized services for animal models of addiction for psychiatric research and helping researchers successfully achieve their research goals.
Introduction of Addiction Animal Models
Drug addiction has been described as a chronic, relapsing brain disorder characterized by the compulsive seeking and use of drugs regardless of harmful consequences. Substance abuse and addiction are huge public health problems that affect society and public policy in multiple areas, including healthcare, education, worker productivity, criminal law, and the prison system. Animal studies are critical to understanding the biology and pathophysiology of drug addiction and substance abuse. Compared with clinical studies, animal studies can more easily control for variables in the subject population. Animal models typically focus on the ability of drugs to directly control an animal's behavior, a finding that is also consistent with the behavioral definition of addiction.
Fig. 1 Behavioral characterization of 0crit and 3crit rats in the multisymptomatic model of cocaine addiction. (Spanagel R, 2017)
Animal Modeling Services for Addiction
Ace Therapeutics has many years of experience in psychiatry, and our animal models of drug addiction have excellent facial validity, mimicking as closely as possible the behaviors observed in humans, and the neurochemical and neural aspects of drug intake behavior. The anatomical substrate is also similar to humans. Our addiction models are excellent tools for identifying pathological mechanisms, target identification, and drug development, and can provide critical insights into associative learning, functional neuroanatomy, and cellular mechanisms of drug addiction disorders.
Information on animal models of addiction we provide:
| Drug Addiction Animal Models |
Advantages |
| Non-contingent drug administration |
| Behavioral sensitization |
Cross-sensitization amongst drugs |
| Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) |
Establishes rewarding or aversive properties |
| Runway Model |
Can be adapted to contingent drug deliver |
| Contingent—drug self-administration (SA) |
| Short Access (ShA) |
Reliably shows escalation of intake and relapse behavior |
| Long Access (LgA) |
Greater escalation of intake, higher break-points and greater drug-induced reinstatement compared to ShA |
| Intermittent Access (IntA) |
Captures temporal pattern of drug intake observed in humans |
| 2-Bottle choice-Ethanol |
Simple set up, no invasive surgery |
| Drink in the Dark (DID)-Ethanol |
No confounding with other reward |
| Chronic Intermittent Ethanol (CIE) |
Good face validity (increased voluntary consumption) |
| Contingent—motivation for drug taking |
| Progressive Ratio (PR) |
Can be done several times throughout training |
| Behavioral Economics |
Can measure several parameters of motivation within one session |
| Contingent—drug seeking and relapse |
| Cued-Reinstatement |
Good face validity |
| Context-Reinstatement |
Can assess the effects of a compilation of cues on different sensory modalities on drug-seeking behavior |
| Prime-Reinstatement |
Good face validity |
| Stress-Reinstatement |
Environmental and interoceptive stressors can be used |
Note: Our service list is constantly updated and improved. Please contact us via email for more latest information and related information.
Information to Be Confirmed
Delivery Standard
Ace Therapeutics is dedicated to creating better preclinical models of addiction to help you elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms that drive addiction-related behaviors and develop new treatments. In addition, we can provide addiction-related animal behavior research services. Please tell us your project requirements, we will provide you with a comprehensive service from solution to report. If you have any questions, please feel free to make an inquiry.
References
- Kuhn BN, et al. Understanding Addiction Using Animal Models. Front Behav Neurosci. 2019, 13:262.
- Spanagel R. Animal models of addiction. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2017, 19(3):247-258.
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