Octanoic acid suppresses harmaline-induced tremor in mouse model of essential tremor.

Abstract

Recent work exploring the use of high-molecular weight alcohols to treat essential tremor (ET) has identified octanoic acid as a potential novel tremor-suppressing agent. We used an established harmaline-based mouse model of ET to compare tremor suppression by 1-octanol and octanoic acid. The dose-related effect on digitized motion power within the tremor bandwidth as a fraction of overall motion power was analyzed. Both 1-octanol and octanoic acid provided significant reductions in harmaline tremor. An 8-carbon alkyl alcohol and carboxylic acid each suppress tremor in a pre-clinical mouse model of ET. Further studies are warranted to determine the safety and efficacy of such agents in humans with ET.

• Authors: Fatta B Nahab, Adrian Handforth, Tyler Brown, Christopher Shin, Arnulfo Quesada, Chuanhui Dong, Dietrich Haubenberger, Mark Hallett
• Journal: Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics (Neurotherapeutics) Vol. 9 Issue 3 Pg. 635-8 (Jul 2012) ISSN: 1878-7479 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22454323 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Caprylates
• Central Nervous System Stimulants
• Harmaline
• octanoic acid

Topics

• Animals
• Caprylates (therapeutic use)
• Central Nervous System Stimulants (toxicity)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
• Essential Tremor (chemically induced, drug therapy)
• Harmaline (toxicity)
• Male
• Mice
• Mice, Inbred ICR