Results
FN075 did not precipitate motor impairment in the AAV-α-synuclein model
One critical aspect of Parkinson’s disease is the progressive emergence of motor impairments. In unilateral models of the disease, this manifests as deficits on contralateral side of the body to the site injected, while the ipsilateral side of the body remains unaffected. Hence, the animals were subjected to a series of lateralised motor tests to investigate whether the single or combined Parkinsonian insults could provoke motor impairment specifically on the contralateral side. However, relative to the Control group, neither AAV-α-synuclein nor FN075, either alone or in sequence, induced any significant contralateral motor deficit in any of the tests (Fig. 1; Stepping: Group x Time, F(15, 180) = 0.66, p> 0.05; Whisker: Group x Time, F(15, 180) = 0.84, p > 0.05); Corridor Group x Time,F(15, 180) = 0.73, p > 0.05).
Fig. 1. Effect of AAV-α-synuclein and/or FN075 on contralateral motor function. Neither unilateral administration of AAV-α-synuclein nor FN075, alone or sequentially, was sufficient to induce contralateral motor deficits in the Stepping, Whisker or Corridor tests. Data are represented as mean ± SEM with n = 10 animals per group, and were analysed by two-way ANOVA with repeated measures. Infusion days are represented by dashed lines.