Schizophrenia Models

The pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SCZ) remains unclear, and treatment response and prognosis are often limited. Animal models are therefore important for investigating disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets and for evaluating antipsychotic drugs. Several hypotheses have been proposed, including neurodevelopmental, dopamine, and glutamate hypotheses.

Greentech provides an MK-801 (dizocilpine)-induced mouse model of schizophrenia, a classic pharmacological model based on glutamatergic hypofunction for antipsychotic drug screening and evaluation.

MK-801 (Dizocilpine)-Induced Schizophrenia Model

MK-801 (dizocilpine) is a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist. NMDA receptor hypofunction is implicated in schizophrenia and can induce positive and negative symptom-like behaviors, including reduced social interaction and cognitive impairment. The MK-801-induced model is simple to establish and suitable for rapid screening and pharmacodynamic evaluation of antipsychotic drugs.

Model Induction: A single intraperitoneal injection of MK-801 induces acute positive symptom-like behaviors. Daily intraperitoneal administration for 1 week induces negative symptom-like behaviors accompanied by cognitive impairment.

Evaluation Parameters: Spontaneous locomotor activity, novel object recognition, elevated plus maze, and other behavioral assessments.

Animal Species: Mice

Representative Case Studies

MK-801-Induced Acute Schizophrenia Mouse Model