Rubidium ion extraction from salt-lake brines is of vital significance but still challenging. Adsorption is an effective and feasible approach but existing adsorbents face the disadvantages of limited selectivity, capacity, or regeneration. Herein, a strategy is proposed whereby a chelation micro-environment surrounded by multiple sulfonic acid (-SO3H) groups is constructed for the targeted capture of Rb+ ions. A robust MIL-53-(SH)2 (MIL, Material Institute Lavoisier) was synthesized via a newly presented green method and subsequently oxidized to MIL-53-(SO3H)2. Owing to the enlarged group size of -SO3H compared to that of -SH (sulfydryl), the group-group distance was essentially shortened in a fixed pore space, stimulating the synergic chelation of multiple -SO3H groups. Benefiting from the enhanced affinity and smooth diffusion, a high capacity of 165.1 ± 3.2 mg g-1 and fast adsorption equilibrium time of 10-30 min were achieved. Selective adsorption over the co-existing Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ ions was also achieved, demonstrating feasilibity in a simulated salt-lake brine. Furthermore, the proposed adsorbent proved thermo-regenerable, with a high retention rate of adsorption amount (∼90 %) even after the fifth cycle.
An 8-year- and 8-month-old spayed female 8.8-kg French bulldog presented with a 4-month history of progressive deterioration, followed by paresis of both pelvic limbs. Orthopedic examination revealed no abnormalities. Neurological examination revealed no findings suggestive of brain dysfunction. However, abnormal findings, including impaired conscious proprioception in both pelvic limbs and hyperreflexia of patellar, cranial tibialis, and gastrocnemius reflexes, suggested a spinal segmental lesion in the T3-L3 region. The dog was diagnosed with a spinal arachnoid diverticulum in the T11-T12 vertebrae (Day 1) by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and underwent surgical treatment (dorsal laminectomy with dural marsupialization) on Day 27. The dog was presented to the referral hospital on a weekly basis and underwent neurological examinations at each visit. Initial neurological signs included persistent bilateral pelvic limb proprioceptive deficits; no other new neurological abnormalities were noted. Epileptic seizures occurred on Days 43 and 57. Brain MRI performed on Day 91 revealed findings suggestive of a glioma. The dog was administered prednisone (0.5 mg/kg SID, PO) and zonisamide (5 mg/kg BID, PO). Neurological abnormalities, such as circling and left forelimb ambulatory monoparesis, became more noticeable. The dog developed status epilepticus and died on Day 209. The owner said that the frequency of seizures was approximately twice a month and had not increased, and seizure duration did not appear to have lengthened until Day 209. In this case, no direct history or neurological abnormalities suggestive of a lesion in the forebrain region were noted until the onset of epileptic seizures; however, the glioma was diagnosed within 3 months of spinal arachnoid diverticulum diagnosis. Therefore, the brain tumor might have been detected if a brain MRI had been performed when spinal cord disease was initially diagnosed. This report indicates that simultaneous brain MRIs should be considered when performing MRI examinations for spinal cord diseases. However, this report describes a single case and lacks a histopathological evaluation for a definitive diagnosis of glioma, meningioma, or other types of brain tumors.
Accurate posture assessment is essential for diagnosing and managing health issues related to postural disorders. Existing mobile applications rely on 2D imaging and analyzing reflective markers placed on anatomical landmarks of the human body without comprehensive view of body's posture. A mobile tool of 3D body reconstruction-based posture assessment is proposed in this paper. A smartphone is used to capture video circling around a static standing person in an approximate A-pose. Some specific multi-view body images using body orientation estimation are extracted from video. Then OpenPose and U2Net are employed to extract 2D joints and contours of each image. Camera poses are estimated using feature matching, and 3D joints are reconstructed from 2D joints and camera parameters. Multi-view projection contour consistency is used to iteratively optimize SMPL parameters for accurate 3D body reconstruction. From reconstructed 3D SMPL body, the required parameters for posture assessment including key 3D body points, joint angles, and spatial measurements, etc. can be easily obtained and calculated. Finally, assessment results are compared with artificial intelligence posture evaluation and correction system (APECS), and reliability is evaluated using Cohen's d and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). The proposed 3D body-based method achieved over 90% accuracy in identifying common postural abnormalities, such as uneven shoulders and forward head posture. The posture assessment results were in close agreement with existing method. 3D body reconstruction is demonstrated to be an effective method for posture assessment. Smartphone video-based posture assessment provides a user-friendly, visualized, abnormal posture screening tool.
The BNA's winter research meeting took place high above the City of London at Canary Wharf, an inspiring setting to consider new perspectives. The central theme was 'delivery', focusing on translation of fundamental neuroscience into effective therapies. The event targeted three main questions: How can therapies be effectively delivered to the brain? How might 'meaningful intervention' be realised for patients? How might hope be maintained for people with neurological and psychiatric disorders? Several interlocking ideas and debates emerged, circling around a central concern of how to move from molecular promise to effective and equitable real-world change for patients.
Meningoencephalitis of unknown origin (MUO) is an idiopathic inflammatory disorder of the canine central nervous system predominantly affecting small-breed dogs. Standard treatment typically involves glucocorticoids; however, chronic steroid exposure carries substantial risk for adverse effects and may compromise long-term management. A 9-year-old, 2.5 kg female Chihuahua presented with 1 week of rightward circling, head tilt, and cervical stiffness. MRI revealed multifocal intra-axial hyperintensities involving the cerebellum, brainstem, and medulla with associated meningeal enhancement. CSF cytology demonstrated moderate lymphocytic pleocytosis with elevated protein. A steroid-free immunosuppressive protocol using leflunomide and mycophenolate mofetil was initiated. Neurologic signs progressively improved, and repeat MRI at 12 months documented complete resolution of inflammatory lesions. Both medications were continued for 2 years, during which serial hematologic and biochemical monitoring remained within normal limits. No adverse events occurred. This case provides, to the authors' knowledge, the first documented MRI-confirmed remission of MUO achieved with exclusive steroid-free immunosuppression. Relevant literature is reviewed to contextualize the immunopathogenesis of MUO and considerations for steroid-sparing strategies.
This response addresses the comments raised by Dr. Epain and colleagues in their Letter to the Editor titled 'On using clustering statistics for assessing plasmid binning tools accuracy' in response to our paper 'Circling in on plasmids: benchmarking plasmid detection and reconstruction tools for short-read data from diverse species'. In their letter, the authors caution against using homogeneity and completeness measures to evaluate the accuracy of plasmid binning tools due to issues related to the length and content of contigs. They also refer to PlasEval, a plasmid binning evaluation tool that they recently developed. In response, we evaluated the impact of contig size and content on the results of our study, and also repeated the benchmarking of plasmid reconstruction tools using PlasEval. Though the absolute values of metrics differed across tests, we observed nearly identical rankings among plasmid reconstruction tools as originally reported in our study, with gplas2 outperforming all other tools. Nevertheless, approaches specifically designed for plasmid data may be better suited than clustering metrics to evaluate plasmid reconstruction.
The NASA Rodent Habitat aboard the International Space Station enabled long-duration studies of behavioral responses to spaceflight, but video-based behavioral analysis has relied on laborious manual annotation. No study has tested whether deep learning tools can automate this analysis under the demanding imaging conditions of orbital vivaria. We applied pose estimation (SLEAP) and behavioral segmentation (DeepEthogram) to archival footage from the Rodent Research-1 mission. Nine labelers annotated 3,249 pose labels across 2,063 frames, and three behaviorists labeled 411,194 frames across 66 videos. Pose tracking accuracy approximated human inter-annotator variability despite progressive lens soiling, grid occlusions, and spherical aberration. Behavioral classification across eight categories achieved accuracy of 0.86-0.90 and suggests progressive behavioral adaptations to microgravity. Kinematic reconstruction of circling estimated centripetal accelerations periodically approaching 1g. This is the first application of deep learning-based pose estimation and behavioral segmentation to rodents in spaceflight, establishing benchmarks for future monitoring systems.
Food waste reduction and reutilisation is paramount to meeting national Waste Directives and achieving the Sustainable Development agenda. Implementing Circular Economy principles provides opportunities for cost savings, new revenue streams, and sustainable resource management. Applying the Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Accounting and Reporting Standard, this study identifies and measures sources of FLW in the manufacture of prepared sandwiches, and explores reduction and reutilisation from a Circular Economy perspective. The examined process contributes to circularity, with a loss rate of 13%, of which 97% is valorised. Waste hotspots include product assembly and ingredient preparation, while operational reductions, design changes, and stakeholder collaboration for high-value side-stream management would further reduce FLW impact. Examining a complex food item at the product-level for the first time, this study provides an evidence base for FLW reduction through inventory and hotspot analysis, contextualising the current extent of circularity and suggesting areas for further development.
The black-winged kite algorithm (BKA) integrates the Cauchy mutation strategy and the leader selection strategy to simulate high-altitude circling exploration, fixed-point diving attack, and group cooperative migration of the black-winged kites to approximate the global optimal solution. The BKA exhibits deficiencies in ponderous convergence efficacy, inefficient calculation precision, and insufficient population diversity. To strengthen the convergence property and computational practicability, an enhanced BKA with multiple strategies (MSBKA) is advocated to accommodate global optimization and constrained engineering applications. The objective is to systematically verify its advancement and competitiveness and accurately actualize the global optimal solution. The ranking-based differential mutation can strengthen population information interaction, accelerate convergence efficiency, restrain premature convergence, diminish homogenization competition, promote exploration and exploitation, intensify elite individual guidance, downscale ineffective iterations, and materialize orderly population renewal. The simplex method can execute the local refinement operations of reflection, expansion, compression and contraction, strengthen local mining efficiency, ameliorate solution accuracy, abate parameter sensitivity, eschew local optimal traps, accelerate accurate convergence, and preserve the optimal individual potential. The elite opposition-based learning strategy can fabricate reverse solutions, expand the monolithic detection space, shorten the convergence process, elevate the quality of initial and iterative solutions, boost population diversity, guide intelligent search direction, and relieve premature convergence. The MSBKA utilizes deficiency orientation, strategy adaptation, and collaborative search to accomplish the realistic demands of high-precision, high-efficiency and strong constraint adaptation, surmount the static trade-off dilemma, endow a strong directional abscond mechanism to replace random perturbation, and actualize the inertia of directional exploration and the blind spots of solution exploitation. Twenty-three benchmark functions and six real-world engineering designs are employed to authenticate theoretical superiority and engineering practicability. The experimental results demonstrate that the MSBKA incorporates strong practicability and reliability to strengthen information interaction, restrain search stagnation, diminish convergence oscillation and fluctuation, facilitate globalized discovery and localized extraction, expedite convergence efficacy, ameliorate solution precision, and consolidate stability and robustness.
The rheotactic behavior of spermatozoa in an outward radial flow was studied using a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches. Simulations suggested that at moderate flow rates, spermatozoa exhibited directed migration towards the flow origin, while at higher flow rates, the spermatozoa were predicted to display rotational rheotaxis, circling the origin while gradually moving inward, delaying their arrival at the center. Leveraging these findings, we developed a microfluidic device combining radial flow with strategically placed contracted pathways for efficient sperm selection, the sperm unidirectional navigation chip (SUN chip). This platform processed raw bovine semen to isolate highly motile (up to 98% motility) and vital spermatozoa suitable for assisted reproductive technologies. The yield of motile sperm retrieval for the SUN chip is ∼30%, and the cells in the processed population were 50% faster on average compared to raw semen. Our results demonstrate the potential of radial flow microfluidics to enhance sperm selection processes and can be used to investigate other microswimmer dynamics.
A handheld smartphone-based computer vision algorithm (RealHorse® [RH]) offers accessible alternatives for equine gait analysis but requires validation against a gold-standard three-dimensional multicamera optical motion capture system (Qualisys® [QS]). To evaluate the accuracy and precision of RH in measuring vertical displacement signals (VDS) at the eye, withers, back and croup in horses trotting on a straight line and on a circle. Cross-sectional comparative validation study of a markerless computer vision algorithm. Fifty-nine horses were recorded while trotting on a straight line and 24 were lunged on a circle. RH detected two-dimensional anatomical keypoints on each frame, which were used to estimate a dynamic groundline and compute ground relative VDS with stride-based difference in maxima (Maxdiff) and minima (Mindiff). QS provided synchronous ground-relative VDS reference values. Agreement was evaluated using mean signed error, mean absolute error and Bland-Altman analysis. On the straight line (n = 2620 strides), the pooled stride-level MAE for Maxdiff and Mindiff was 3.8 mm. Keypoint-specific errors were 5.1 mm (eye), 4.3 mm (withers) and 3.0 mm (croup). On the circle (n = 2419 strides), pooled stride-level error increased to 5.5 mm. Trial-level analysis (n = 58 trials) showed much lower errors: 1.4 mm for both eye and withers and 1.1 mm for croup. On the circle (n = 24 trials), trial-level errors were higher, with 2.8 mm for the eye, 1.8 mm for the withers and 3.3 mm for the croup. The back keypoint consistently showed the lowest errors across both stride and trial levels. RH measurements of the croup Mindiff during circling resulted in higher values and showed the largest error. RH measured vertical displacement of all keypoints with high accuracy and precision (trial-level MAE 1.1-1.4 mm straight, 1.8-3.3 mm circle), supporting its use for equine gait analysis.
Motility of Plasmodium sporozoites (SPZs) in the skin is a key determinant of successful host infection. Earlier studies have described rapid movement of both murine and human SPZs in skin following syringe inoculation. It is typical to classify SPZ trajectories into "motile" and "immotile" and restrict the analysis of movement patterns to motile SPZs. Because criteria to define motile SPZs are dependent on the study and are often qualitative, it remains unclear if sub-selection of motile tracks introduces biases in characterization of SPZ movement in vivo. We processed imaging data (22 movies) from a recent study of movement of P. falciparum (Pf) and P. yoelii (Py) SPZ in skin. We proposed a novel metric - maximal spatial spread (MSS or S) - that is the maximum Euclidean distance between any two recorded positions in a trajectory. We used MSS to classify SPZ trajectories as immotile (S ≤ S threshold) or motile (S > S threshold) for a given threshold value S threshold. Larger S threshold values naturally resulted in a smaller fraction of tracks classified as motile, and subsequently, in an increased overall displacement, instantaneous and mean speeds, decreased mean turning angle, and higher initial slopes of the mean squared displacement (MSD) curves. We found that at intermediate values of S threshold Pf SPZs had a lower average speed than Py SPZs suggesting that host environment may impact SPZ movement. Both species exhibited a small but statistically significant decline in average speed with time after inoculation but this was also dependent on the S threshold value. Our analysis of MSD curves and turning angle distributions suggests that both Pf and Py SPZs undergo correlated random walks - a type of Brownian walk with short-term superdiffusive displacement. By using a novel methodology of hidden Markov models (moveHMM package in R) we found that SPZ movement is best described by three movement states; however, none of these states corresponded to previously described circling gliding. Taking together, our results suggest that inference of SPZ movement patterns depends on the criteria used to define tracks as motile or immotile. Standardized preprocessing criteria are therefore important when comparing motility across Plasmodium species, experimental time points, or laboratories. Analysis of turning angle distributions and application of hidden Markov models provided additional metrics to quantify distinct modes of SPZ movement in vivo.
Maternal immunisation allows the transfer of protective antibodies to the offspring, reducing the risk of severe infection during early life. While vaccination during pregnancy is clinically recommended, its long-term impact on neurodevelopment remains under investigation. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by social and behavioural alterations. Here, we evaluated whether prenatal exposure to the COVID-19 mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine or influenza vaccine affects general and autism-related behavioural outcomes in juvenile (4 weeks) and adult (8 weeks) mouse offspring. We also assessed maternal and fetal immune responses by measuring cytokines, soluble P2X7 receptor, BDNF, CRP, and lipid peroxidation in maternal plasma and fetal brain tissue. Prenatal COVID-19 vaccination elicited a moderate maternal cytokine response (increased IL-6 and KC) without overt fetal brain inflammation. Mild, age- and sex-dependent behavioural changes were observed, including anxiety-related parameters in the elevated plus maze and altered locomotion in the open field at 4-8 weeks, however, no consistent or robust ASD-like behavioural phenotype emerged across ages. Fetal P2X7 receptor levels were elevated, while fetal CRP, BDNF, and TBARS remained unchanged. In adult offspring, BDNF was selectively reduced in the prefrontal cortex, whereas hippocampal BDNF and P2X7 receptor levels in both regions were unaffected. Although embryonic P2X7 receptor levels were transiently elevated following COVID-19 vaccination, these changes were not accompanied by fetal inflammation or persistent adult purinergic alterations. Prenatal influenza vaccination induced mild, age-dependent behavioural alterations, such as increased circling in juveniles and reduced sociability in females, without detectable maternal or fetal inflammatory responses or changes in fetal neurotrophic markers. In contrast, maternal poly(I:C) administration provoked robust systemic inflammation and pronounced fetal brain effects, including elevated cytokines, CRP, P2X7 receptor, and region-specific microglial density, accompanied by persistent reductions in adult BDNF expression. Overall, within the limits of this experimental design, prenatal COVID-19 vaccination did not produce long-lasting ASD-like phenotypes or widespread neurodevelopmental alterations, while influenza vaccination had limited and transient effects. These findings are consistent with the absence of widespread or persistent neurodevelopmental disruption in this experimental model, although further studies-including multiple doses, gestational timepoints, and cellular-level analyses-are warranted to fully elucidate mechanisms and long-term outcomes.
Intracranial sarcomas are rarely reported in dogs. A 9-y-old, castrated male mixed-breed dog was evaluated and euthanized because of a 1-wk history of lethargy, dullness, disorientation, right-sided head tilt, and circling to the right. Grossly, a pale-tan, firm, 1.5-cm mass effaced ~60% of the right-ventral aspect of the pons. Histologically, the mass was composed of elongate neoplastic cells with abundant cytoplasm and round-to-oval nuclei arranged in bundles and supported by collagenous stroma. Anisocytosis and anisokaryosis were moderate, with 11 mitoses in 2.37 mm2 (10 FN22/40× fields). The neoplasm was well-demarcated with occasional areas of infiltration in the surrounding neuroparenchyma. Neoplastic cells had widespread cytoplasmic immunolabeling for vimentin, patchy cytoplasmic immunolabeling for myoglobin, weak cytoplasmic immunolabeling for desmin, and rare cytoplasmic immunolabeling for myogenin. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed bundles of oval-to-elongate neoplastic cells with small-to-medium cytoplasmic aggregates of rough endoplasmic reticulum cisterns. The centrally-to-peripherally located nuclei were round and had one or more compact-to-reticulate nucleoli. Collagen bundles were in intimate contact with the plasma membrane of neoplastic cells and formed the abundant extracellular matrix. Histologic, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural findings were consistent with an encephalic fibrosarcoma. The myogenic differentiation suggested by immunohistochemistry could not be confirmed by TEM.
2,2'-Dimorpholinodiethyl ether (DMDEE) is a tertiary amine catalyst used in the production of polyurethane foams. Human exposure may occur occupationally through inhalation of DMDEE vapors. B6C3F1/N mice (5-6 weeks old) were exposed to 0-1000 mg DMDEE/kg in water by oral gavage daily for 4 weeks. Time-mated Harlan Sprague Dawley (HSD) rats (12-14 weeks old) were exposed to 0-500 mg DMDEE/kg in water from gestation day (GD) 6 through post-natal day (PND) 27 by oral gavage; their pups were directly dosed from PND12 through PND27. Blood was collected from mice (4-weeks), rat dams (GD18, PND4, PND28) and rat pups (PND 4, PND 28) for hematology, clinical chemistry, and micronucleus evaluation; mouse tissues were analyzed for histopathology. DMDEE (500-6000 μg/plate) was evaluated for mutagenicity using Salmonella typhimurium (TA98, TA100) or Escherichia coli WP2 uvrA pKM101. No DMDEE-related effects were observed on pregnancy or litter parameters in HSD rats. The mouse and rat micronucleus tests and the bacterial reverse mutation tests were negative. At 1000 mg DMDEE/kg, behavioral observations of circling, repetitive head lifting, and abnormal gait were accompanied by cytoplasmic vacuolization in epithelial cells of the brain choroid plexus, and in the renal cortical tubules in male and female mice. Cytoplasmic vacuolization was also observed in the epithelial cells in the coagulating gland, prostate, and epididymis of male mice. These data indicate deficits in the cellular structure and function of neurological and renal tissues in male and female mice, as well as male reproductive tissues at higher doses and suggest caution in the industrial use of DMDEE.
The study aims to understand how loss of ZPLD1 affects the behaviour of homozygous Zpld1(em1/IMPC)J mice (Zpld1-/- mice) and the structure of the cupula. Evaluation of 2-minute open-field, swim, and tail-suspension tests indicated open-field testing was optimal for detecting mutants. Mice were therefore video-recorded in an open field for 5 minutes, and DeepLabCut was trained to track the position of body parts allowing quantitation of head-turning and distance travelled. Dark rearing from postnatal day (P) 11 to 20 with open-field testing at P20, 23, 27, 34 and 46 was used to determine the influence of early visual experience. To examine the structure of the cupula, cryosections of the inner ear were stained with antibodies to otogelin (OTOG) and ZPLD1. Results reveal Zpld1-/- mice are, on average, hyperactive and exhibit increased head-turning relative to Zpld1+/- mice. Furthermore, 24% of all Zpld1-/- mice tested exhibited overt circling behaviour. Head-turning gradually decreases with age but is considerably greater in Zpld1-/- mice at all stages tested. Early visual deprivation does not alter head-turning or locomotor activity, nor the proportion of circlers observed. The cupula and ZPLD1 staining extend from the crista to the ampullary roof in Zpld1+/- mice, and OTOG is concentrated in the region nearest the sensory epithelium. In Zpld1-/- mice, OTOG remains closely associated with the crista, but the cupula no longer extends to the roof of the ampulla. We conclude ZPLD1 plays a critical role in enabling the cupula to form correctly, thereby allowing normal function of the vestibular ampullary organs.
We study a crystal composed of active units governed by self-alignment and chirality. The first mechanism acts as an effective torque that aligns the particle orientation with its velocity, while the second drives individual particles along circular orbits. We find that even a weak degree of chirality, when coupled with self-alignment, induces collective motion of the entire crystal along circular trajectories in space. We refer to this phase as a circling crystal. When chirality outweighs self-alignment, the circular global motion is suppressed in favor of vortex-like regions of coordinated motion. This state is characterized by oscillating spatial velocity correlations, a power law decay of the energy spectrum, and oscillatory temporal correlations. Our findings can be tested experimentally in systems ranging from epithelial tissues to swarming robots, governed by chirality and self-alignment.
Many swimming microorganisms navigate their environment by modulating the curvature of their swimming trajectories in response to external cues. Here, we show that the biflagellate alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii swims in circles and actively switches its trajectory handedness in response to orthogonal illumination: the cell swims counterclockwise at low light intensities yet clockwise at high light intensities. This handedness switching arises from light-dependent modulation of flagellar beating, including rapid and reversible changes in beat extension, phase, and-crucially-beat plane orientation. Using high-speed imaging and hydrodynamic modeling, we reveal that this beat plane reorientation is critical for Chlamydomonas to swim orthogonally to light as well as to dynamically modulate its trajectory curvature, enabling transitions between global exploration and localized searching in spatially structured light fields. Our results establish beat plane reorientation as a novel mechanism for curvature control in microswimmer navigation.
Behavioral monitoring of laboratory animals is essential for evaluating drug safety, yet existing assessments are typically limited to in-room observations by technicians. Here, we introduce our versatile AI model pipeline, composed of interconnected artificial neural networks that leverage end-to-end learning based solely on video-derived appearance features of canines. This non-invasive approach enables detailed mapping of activity, behavior and clinical signs at individual animal level under diverse conditions. To validate its real-world application, we conducted extensive field testing on hours of footage. Trained on a large, annotated dataset, our model can accurately multi-track up to three group-housed canines using color-coded reflective harnesses, achieving high re-identification accuracies (≥92.5%) and IDF1 scores up to 99.9%. AI-derived locomotor activity showed a strong correlation with accelerometer-based measurements (r = 0.965). Our AI model detects 11 behavior and clinical observation classes, with a mean class accuracy of 48% and individual accuracies up to 93%. As such, a detailed time-specific quantitative output is available for activity, mobility, pose, eating, drinking and specific clinical signs (ataxia, anxiety, circling, convulsions, head shaking, involuntary muscle movements, limping, limb stiff, vomiting). Our innovative approach brings holistic behavioral and health monitoring in canines closer to routine practice and contributes towards the 3Rs principles.
Treatment-resistant juvenile depression is a globally prevalent issue, with a need for better pharmacotherapy. Typically, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are front line, but recently there is interest in examining using ketamine or esketamine adjunct in adolescents. In this study, a novel method is used to explore the adverse effects of sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine in a female pre-pubescent rat model, to assess its potential clinical implications. We assessed the severity and duration of dissociative behavior at three sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine (40, 50, and 60 mg•kg-1). Dissociative behaviors cause a subject to feel apart from their reality and ketamine is often abused for such effects. Dissociative behaviors, such as circling and ataxia, were observed following ketamine administration, with higher doses leading to increased severity and duration of symptoms up to 120 min post-injection. Our findings revealed that increasing doses of ketamine intensified both the severity and duration of dissociative behaviors. In conclusion, these results suggest a correlation underlying ketamine's rapid-acting antidepressant effect, particularly with higher sub-anesthetic doses associated with more pronounced dissociative behaviors and a rapid-acting antidepressant effect. Further investigation into ketamine's impact on longer-term dissociative effects is warranted to deepen our understanding of its therapeutic risks of ketamine treatment of adolescent depression.