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.

Figures

Fig. 1

Mean motion power percentage of harmaline-injected mice treated with octanoic acid or 1-octanol at 10-70 minutes following treatment. For comparison, pre-harmaline baseline (B) and pre-treatment harmaline (H) epochs are shown for each drug, averaged across all treatment groups. The motion power percentage refers to digitized motion power within the tremor bandwidth (10-16 Hz) divided by overall motion power at 0-34 Hz. Means and SEMs are shown. Statistical comparisons are with 0 mg/kg and Student’s t-test. *p < 0.05, **p = 0.01, ***p < 0.001