Drug Discrimination
Most, if not all, abused drugs produce a discriminative cue in animals. This response, which displays a high degree of pharmacological selectivity, can be employed to determine whether the animals can distinguish between the novel substance and known drugs of abuse. Test drugs that generalise to, ie are recognised as the comparator drug, are likely to have a similar pharmacological mechanism of action and to produce similar subjective effects in humans. Since subjective effects play a major role in drug abuse, these experiments can be used to predict the abuse potential of new drugs. Furthermore, as drug discrimination studies in animals and studies evaluating subjective effects in humans yield similar drug classifications, these studies provide important information which allows new drugs to be classified based on their predicted subjective effects in man.
RenaSci offers a two-choice lever-pressing operant drug discrimination test in rats. A wide range of drug cues are available including psychostimulants, phencyclidine and MDMA and the model can be used to predict both hallucinogenic potential and entactogen-like properties. Our experimental studies are performed to GLP standards (but in a non-designated GLP establishment) and we provide fully-audited reports of regulatory standard. We have a proven track record in this area as shown by the fact that our drug discrimination studies and reports have been included in successful FDA and EMA New Drug Applications.
