%0 Journal Article
%T Investigation of non-invasive focused ultrasound efficacy on depressive-like behavior in hemiparkinsonian rats.
%A Herlihy RA
%A Alicandri F
%A Berger H
%A Rehman H
%A Kao Y
%A Akhtar K
%A Dybas E
%A Mahoney-Rafferty E
%A Von Stein K
%A Kirby R
%A Tawfik A
%A Skumurski R
%A Feustel PJ
%A Molho ES
%A Shin DS
%J Exp Brain Res
%V 242
%N 2
%D 2024 Feb 7
%M 38059986
%F 2.064
%R 10.1007/s00221-023-06750-2
%X Depression is a common non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD) that includes anhedonia and impacts quality of life but is not effectively treated with conventional antidepressants clinically. Vagus nerve stimulation improves treatment-resistant depression in the general population, but research about its antidepressant efficacy in PD is limited. Here, we administered peripheral non-invasive focused ultrasound to hemiparkinsonian ('PD') and non-parkinsonian (sham) rats to mimic vagus nerve stimulation and assessed its antidepressant-like efficacy. Following 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion, akinesia-like immobility was assessed in the limb-use asymmetry test, and despair- and anhedonic-like behaviors were evaluated in the forced swim test and sucrose preference test, respectively. After, tyrosine hydroxylase immuno-staining was employed to visualize and quantify dopaminergic degeneration in the substantia nigra pars compacta, ventral tegmental area, and striatum. We found that PD rats exhibited akinesia-like immobility and > 90% reduction in tyrosine hydroxylase immuno-staining ipsilateral to the lesioned side. PD rats also demonstrated anhedonic-like behavior in the sucrose preference test compared to sham rats. No 6-OHDA lesion effect on immobility in the forced swim test limited conclusions about the efficacy of ultrasound on despair-like behavior. However, ultrasound improved anhedonic-like behavior in PD rats and this efficacy was sustained through the end of the 1-week recovery period. The greatest number of animals demonstrating increased sucrose preference was in the PD group receiving ultrasound. Our findings here are the first to posit that peripheral non-invasive focused ultrasound to the celiac plexus may improve anhedonia in PD with further investigation needed to reveal its potential for clinical applicability.