Animal models play a pivotal role in disease research, offering scientists a comprehensive platform to gain deep insights into the patterns of disease occurrence and progression, facilitate drug development, and validate treatment methodologies. Among them, non-human primates (NHPs), distinguished by their brain anatomical structures, gene expressions, neural circuits, and functional characteristics that closely resemble those of humans, serve as exceptional model organisms for investigating MDD models.

Topgene Biological Research Institute has successfully developed a MDD model utilizing Macaca mulatta monkeys, demonstrating typical depressive-like behaviors such as huddling and stereotypical behaviors, along with heightened levels of inflammatory cytokines in their plasma. This innovative MDD monkey model boasts a remarkable success rate and the capability to generate models in large batches, thereby offering robust CRO services for the efficacy and safety evaluation of MDD drug development initiatives.

1. Custom high-definition cameras were utilized to record observations of six typical behaviors exhibited by experimental monkeys, namely hunched posture, feeding, grooming, suspension/movement, awakening, and stereotypical behavior. Skilled laboratory personnel subsequently calculated the total duration of each behavior for each monkey throughout the entire day.

2. Upon examining and quantifying the behavioral patterns displayed by the experimental monkeys, we observed a notable increase in the duration of hunched posture and stereotypical behavior during both the 4th and 8th weeks of stress. This suggests that the monkeys exhibited clear signs of depressive-like behaviors as a response to the stress they were undergoing.

Figure 1

3. We employed the MSD method to detect various inflammatory factors in the plasma of the experimental monkeys. Our findings revealed that, by the 10th week, there was a significant increase in the concentrations of IL-6 (as illustrated in Figure2.A) and TNF-α (as illustrated in Figure 3.B) in the plasma of the monkeys, compared to their pre-stress levels.