Essential tremor (ET) is a progressive chronic neurological disorder characterized by involuntary and rhythmic tremor of a body part (hands, arms, head, vocal cords, etc). Contrary to Parkinson’s disease where tremors are more prominent while at rest, ET is more visible and intense when a patient is in motion or trying to maintain a fixed position. While ET is not life-threatening, patient quality of life and the ability to execute simple tasks such as drinking from a glass, can be severely affected as the condition progresses and worsens with age. As first-line medication for ET induces side effects in most patients1 it is essential to develop better treatments.

Examples of models and services we offer:

  • Harmaline administration can be used as a model of ET to induce 9-12Hz tremors in rats and 10-15Hz tremors in mice 2. Similar to what is seen in patients, the observed harmaline-induced tremors are more intense when the animal is in motion and appear to come in bursts. Numerous works have validated the harmaline-induced model as a preclinical model of essential tremor with distinct features from Parkinson’s disease 1,5,6, making it a reliable method to screen novel candidate drugs for ET.

    Please contact us if you would like to discuss the possibility of co-developing new tremorgenic models. We are eager to expand our capabilities and help you achieve your scientific goals.

  • A piezoelectric plate can be used to record tremor events in rats or mice (SR-LAB from San Diego Instruments). Various quantifiable data can be retrieved from a single recording (power spectrum, intensity, duration, time spent in tremor) to assess whether NCEs affect the number of tremors, the duration of tremors, and/or the intensity of tremors 2-6.

    Graph depicting the number, duration and intensity of tremors, and/or the intensity of tremors

  • Transpharmation offers you the option to use our proprietary algorithms to analyze your pre-recorded tremor-monitor data. You can tailor the data analysis and reporting to your needs and budget, and benefit from fast, reproducible, and validated processing of your data with full confidentiality.

    Graph depicting the number, duration and intensity of tremors, and/or the intensity of tremors
  1. Thanvi B, Lo N, Robinson T. Essential tremor-the most common movement disorder in older people. Age Ageing. 2006 Jul;35(4):344-9
  2. Martin FC, Thu Le A, Handforth A. Harmaline-induced tremor as a potential preclinical screening method for essential tremor medications. Mov Disord. 2005 Mar;20(3):298-305
  3. Pan MK, Ni CL, Wu YC, Li YS, Kuo SH. Animal Models of Tremor: Relevance to Human Tremor Disorders. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (NY). 2018 Oct 9;8:587
  4. Ossowska K, Głowacka U, Kosmowska B, Wardas J. Apomorphine enhances harmaline-induced tremor in rats. Pharmacol Rep. 2015 Jun;67(3):435-41
  5. Paterson NE, Malekiani SA, Foreman MM, Olivier B, Hanania T. Pharmacological characterization of harmaline-induced tremor activity in mice. Eur J Pharmacol. 2009 Aug 15;616(1-3):73-80
  6. Kosmowska B, Wardas J, Głowacka U, Ananthan S, Ossowska K. Pramipexole at a Low Dose Induces Beneficial Effect in the Harmaline-induced Model of Essential Tremor in Rats. CNS Neurosci Ther. 2016 Jan;22(1):53-62.