Sleep - Wake and Motor Activity

Discover how Melior’s unique phenotypic screening platforms can uncover the untapped value of your candidate therapeutic

Cortical EEG activity in rodents can be used to characterize basic behavioral states such as sleep / wake activity, as well as evaluating interactions between drugs and environmental factors such as fatigue.

Rats or mice can be chronically implanted and, depending on the treatments, can be tested repeatedly for several months. General motor activity and body temperature can also be monitored by implanted transmitters.

The effects of caffeine on wake, sleep (SWS), and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep activity, and motor activity and body temperature are illustrated below. See also Cortical EEG Frequency Analysis.

The effect of caffeine (30 mg/kg IP) on wake activity in rats is shown above. Rats (9 vehicle, 6 caffeine) were evaluated for 24 h. The percent time spent awake is shown for each half-hour interval for 10 h post dosing. * P< 0.05, unpaired t-test.

The mean time spent in wake, slow-wave sleep (SWS), and rapid-eye movement sleep (REMS) for the first 4 h post dosing is shown in the graph above left. On the right, the time to onset of sleep and REM sleep is shown.

Caffeine increased motor activity for 4 h and body temperature for 2 h post dosing as shown above.

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Sridharan Rajamani, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist
Gilead Sciences
I have been working with Melior on a number of projects over the course of a few years now. They have been a great partner throughout this time. The scientists whom I have worked with have been great problem-solvers and were customer focused
Jay Lichter
Avalon Ventures
[We] have been impressed with [Melior’s] ability to rapidly and effectively evaluate compounds in animal models…as we strive to identify compounds to ameliorate the devastating symptoms of Rett,
Monica Coenraads, Executive Director
Rett Syndrome Research Trust
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Josh Schultz
Carolus Therapeutics
Addex Therapeutics has been collaborating with Melior Discovery for more than a year. The studies performed at Melior are always carefully planned and skilfully executed while the progress of the project is well-tracked and communicated to the customer. On several occasions, when testing our compounds in a new in vivo assay, we relied on Melior's scientists in their guidance and advice. We have been particularly pleased with a series of experiments involving assessment of compounds' profiles in the rat sleep/wake EEG. This approach, that has a translational relevance, offered a sensitive measure of a compound's efficacy and side-effects
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Addex Therapeutics
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Christopher Prior, Ph.D., CEO,
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc.
…to evaluate our lead compound in an EEG-based sleep wake model. Melior’s very experienced team provided valuable insights and recommendations on study design, analysis and interpretation of the data. As a virtual company, Prexa relied on Melior to become an extension of our knowledge team and they met all our expectations
Pat Baskin and Ev Graham
Prexa Pharmaceuticals
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Richard DiMarchi, PhD
Cox Professor of Chemistry & Gil Chair in Biomolecular Sciences Indiana University, Department of Chemistry