Browsing by Author "Nayani, Nausheen"

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    Depressive and anxiety-like behaviour in the eae model of multiple sclerosis
    (2012) Nayani, Nausheen; Pittman, Quentin J.
    Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating and devastating neurodegenerative disease affecting thousands of Canadians. Accumulating evidence indicates depression and anxiety are co-morbidities affecting a large proportion of MS patients. This thesis tests the hypothesis that, independent of motor deficits, animals with experimental MS will display cognitive behavioural alterations that are associated with inflammatory changes in areas such as the amygdala and hippocampus. Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE) was elicited in mice, and, 7-8 days later, before any motor deficits were observed, mice with EAE displayed increased anxiety-like symptoms in the elevated plus maze and open field, increased depressive-like symptoms in the Porsolt swim and tail suspension tests and decreased sociability. Quantitative RT- PCR indicated that TNF-a and IL-1?? mRNA was generally insignificant in the amygdala and hippocampus of EAE animals compared to controls; thus further studies are required to elucidate if neuroinflammatory changes in the brain are associated with the behavioural alterations.