Obsessive and Compulsive Mice?

This animal study may point the way to a new understanding of a sometimes difficult-to-treat illness.

Neuroimaging data support, albeit inconsistently, a connection between a cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical pathway and clinical manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, genes that might be associated with OCD have been relatively elusive. An animal model of OCD could be highly informative for understanding human compulsive behaviors. To learn more, these authors used mice in which the Sapap3 gene was knocked out.

This gene, the only Sapap gene highly expressed in the striatum, codes for a postsynaptic density protein that regulates NMDA receptors. Sapap3-deficient mice exhibit compulsive self-aggressive grooming behaviors that continue even after hair and skin lesions have occurred.

The researchers looked at Sapap3 expression,…

Reviewing Author

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Obsessive and Compulsive Mice?

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Reviewing Author