Fig. 1

Chronic LC activation from the onset of motor symptoms affects EAE-induced behavioral changes. A Experimental timeline showing the design of the study to assess the effect of chronic LC activation from the onset of motor symptoms in EAE. Representative images showing mCherry (red) expression in DBH (green) in the LC. Scale bars: 100 µm. B Clinical score recorded daily through the course of EAE and their area under the curve (AUC) from the onset of motor deficit and CNO administration (shaded area). C The severity of EAE is expressed as the maximum clinical score achieved and D the percentage change relative to the 17 dpi EAE group, for both the peak (17 dpi) and the chronic (25 dpi) phases of EAE. E Body weight over the course of EAE expressed as the relative change from baseline (at the beginning of experiments) and that at the end of experiments (27 dpi). F Representative activity traces (chronic phase) and the spontaneous locomotor activity expressed as the total distance travelled (arbitrary units, AU), and the AUC from the onset of motor deficit and CNO administration (shaded area). G Representative heat maps (chronic phase) and the relative time spent in the central area of the arena before the onset of motor deficit and CNO administration (10 dpi), and at the peak (17 dpi) and chronic (25 dpi) phases of EAE. H–J Activity/attention score (above) and time spent in the sedentary posture (below) at H the onset, I and at the peak (17 dpi) and J in the chronic (25 dpi) phase of EAE. The data represent the mean + SEM and each point corresponds to an individual mouse (n = 8–10 per group). ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 EAE versus naïve; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 EAE-rM3D_onset versus EAE; ^&p < 0.05 EAE-rM3D_onset 25 dpi versus 17 dpi (Additional file 1: Table S2). Some elements of this figure were created with BioRender.com