Automated Computer Software Assessment of 5-Hydroxytryptamine 2A Receptor-Mediated Head Twitch Responses from Video Recordings of Mice

• DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.1c00237
• Publication Date: 2022-04-08T22:02:30Z
• Authors: Grant C. Glatfelter; Michael R. Chojnacki; Shelby A. McGriff; Tianpeng Wang; Michael H. Baumann
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences

Psychedelics are a class of drugs that produce unique subjective effects via agonist actions at the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor (5-HT2A). The 5-HT2A-mediated head twitch response (HTR) in rodents is used as reliable proxy for psychedelic drug activity humans, but existing methods measuring HTRs require surgery or time-consuming visual scoring. In present work, we validated simple noninvasive method quantitating using computer-based analysis experimental video recordings. Male C57BL/6J mice received injections 5-HT2 (±)2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI; 0.03–3 mg/kg, s.c.) and were placed into cylindrical arenas. High frame rate videos recorded cameras mounted above Antagonist experiments, which entailed pretreatment with 5-HT2A antagonist M100907 (0.01 0.1 mg/kg prior to DOI (1 s.c.), also recorded. analyzed newly developed feature commercial software package compared scoring carried out by trained observers. As expected, produced dose-related increases HTRs, blocked M100907. Computer was positively correlated scoring, no statistical difference between two found. captured nearly all visually observed false positives induced other behaviors (e.g., grooming) rare easily identified, results improved optimizing lighting conditions. Our findings demonstrate utility combining high recordings analyses measure validating an additional study psychedelic-like mice.