Molecular, Neurochemical, and Behavioral Hallmarks of Reserpine as a Model for Parkinson's Disease: New Perspectives to a Long-Standing Model.
The administration of reserpine to rodents was one of the first models used to investigate the pathophysiology and screening for potential treatments of Parkinson's disease (PD). The reserpine model was critical to the understanding of the role of monoamine system in the regulation of motor and affective disorders, as well as the efficacy of current PD treatments, such as L-DOPA and dopamine agonists. Nevertheless, with the introduction of toxin-induced and genetic models of PD, reserpine became underused. The main rationale to this drawback was the supposed absence of reserpine construct validity with PD. Here, we highlight classical and recent experimental findings that support the face, pharmacological, and construct validity of reserpine PD model and reason against the current rationale for its underuse. We also aim to shed a new perspective upon the model by discussing the main challenges and potentials for the reserpine model of PD.
Memory Studies Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
Anderson H F F
AH
Leão
Memory Studies Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
Aldair J
AJ
Sarmento-Silva
Biology Department, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, SE, Brazil.
José R
JR
Santos
Memory Studies Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.|Department of Biosciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Santos, SP, Brazil.
Alessandra M
AM
Ribeiro
Memory Studies Laboratory, Department of Physiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.|Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Pharmacology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Regina H
RH
Silva
D000818:Animals; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D012110:Reserpine / Q000633:toxicity*
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D012110:Reserpine
Parkinson's disease; animal model; dopamine; reserpine; rodent