Sleep-related phenotypes are non-invasively uncovered using home cage monitoring in mouse models of ALS and DM1

Sleep disturbances are common in the general population and even more common as symptoms and comorbidities in many CNS disorders like Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Myotonic Dystrophies, Autism, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression. It is therefore crucial to develop automated instruments to detect such disturbances in models of human diseases. Recently, several international consortia and actions (e.g. IMPC and COST) are aiming to explore and further develop non-intrusive, 24/7, long term approaches to monitor mouse behavior and physiology in their home-cage environment in parallel to standard phenotyping tests. The Digital Ventilated Cage (DVC®) activity monitoring system (Tecniplast) can be a valuable tool to screen for activity-rest cycle phenotypes in disease models. As examples, data from SOD1G93A and DMSXL mouse models of two neurodegenerative/neuromuscular disorders (ALS and DM1) will be presented to illustrate the potential of home cage monitoring in detecting common rest-related disturbances, i.e. disrupted sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness.