Antagonism of haloperidol-induced swim impairment in L-dopa and caffeine treated mice: a pre-clinical model to study Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibits symptoms of motor dysfunction such as tremor, akinesia and rigidity. Agents that selectively disrupt or destroy catecholaminergic systems, such as reserpine, methamphetamine, 6-hydroxydopamine and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine, have been used to develop PD models and to study the animal behavior like catalepsy, akinesia, swim-test, etc. The major apprehension while working with these chemicals is their irreversible neuro-toxic effect. Haloperidol is a classical antipsychotic drug, which produces extra-pyrimidal Parkinson's symptoms (EPS). Measuring catalepsy and akinesia in the treated mice monitored the haloperidol-induced EPS. Alternatively, swimming disability was tested as a new parameter to monitor haloperidol-induced EPS. The results showed that the restoration of swimming disability in haloperidol-induced L-dopa and caffeine pre-treated mice could be used as pre-clinical model to study PD.