Fig. 1

Anxiety-like behavior in EAE is associated to CB1R dysfunction in the striatum. a Exploratory behavior of EAE mice was investigated firstly by LDT confirmed increased anxiety-like behavior in EAE group as showed by time spent in the light zone of the task. a’ Rear episodes in EAE mice were severely reduced in comparison to CFA mice. a” Representative video-recording tracking of CFA and EAE mice performance in the light zone of the LDT apparatus. b, b’ EAE and CFA control mice were evaluated for their ability to construct nests (rated on a 4-point scale) to investigate motivation-based behavior. Bar graph shows a reduction in the quality of nest in EAE mice (b). b’. Representative photographs of nests built by CFA and EAE mice. c. The performance of CB1R-KO mice at the LD test (% of time spent in the bright compartment) revealed an anxiety-related behavior, which is heavily affected by EAE induction. d, d’ Bath application of the CB1R agonist HU210 on striatal slices induced sIPSC frequency reduction in CFA mice (p < 0.01). In EAE striatal slices, the effect of HU210 was abolished (p > 0.05) (d). Representative electrophysiological traces are depicted in d’. Values are means ± SEM. Statistical differences were analyzed by unpaired T-test or Mann-Whitney test (behavior) and by paired T-test (electrophysiology). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. Two-way ANOVA analysis for genotype factor: ##p < 0.01, ### p < 0.0001