Preclinical Services

  • Microdialysis
  • Disease models - from rodents to NHPs
  • Microsurgery, stereotaxic surgery
  • Pharmacokinetics and drug brain delivery

Pronexus preclinical core expertise covers in vivo techniques for monitoring chemical signaling in brain and other organs using microdialysis, evaluation of candidate drugs on experimental models of human diseases, PK/PD studies and testing drug delivery systems. Applications of microdialysis in drug discovery require a unique combination of highly specialized skills in microsurgery, stereotaxic surgery and in vivo handling protocols, as well as, knowledge in neuroanatomy and pharmacology of major neurotransmitter systems.

Pronexus together with its strategic partners offer preclinical research services from in vitro to in vivo models, from pilot experiments to full translational studies up to microdosing and phase I/II clinical trials.

Microdialysis protocols on anesthetized or awake rats and mice

"Proof-of-principle" studies, monitoring neurotransmitters, metabolites and other surrogate markers. All microdialysis experiments are carried out with simultaneous recordings of locomotor activity, alternatively other behavioral tests compatible with microdialysis sampling.

Pharmacokinetics and drug brain delivery

Single, Dual- or Triple probe microdialysis - PK profiles of drug concentrations in body compartments including microdialysates (ISF), blood, CSF and brain tissue. Targeted drug delivery through the BBB.

LC-MS/MS method development and validation for measuring drugs and test compounds.

PD profiles - effects of drugs on neurotransmitter release, uptake and metabolism.

Disease models

Behavioral tests in rodent (rat, mouse, transgenic animals) models of psychiatric, neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders: Schizophrenia, depression, ADHD, drug abuse liability, anxiety, learning and memory dysfunction, epilepsy, Parkinson´s disease, Alzheimer´s disease, Huntington´s disease, traumatic brain injury, liver encephalopathy, diabetes, immunodeficient models.

Microsurgery, stereotaxic surgery on small rodents

Microsurgery at aseptic conditions. Intraventricular, intravenous injection/infusion cannulae including microdialysis probes, syringe minipump-based continuous/discontinuous drug infusions for up to 4 weeks, Alzet osmotic pumps. Sampling CSF.

Lesion models of neurodegenerative diseases.

6-OHDA, LPS, MPTP-lesion models of Parkinson´s disease.
192IgG-saporin lesions of cholinergic neurons.
Ibotenic acid lesions.

Translational capabilities

In partnership with Preclinical Research Center, Lexington, University of Kentucky, we offer PK/PD studies on NHPs to be designed on a unified experimental and bioanalytical platform.