Cannabinoid‐Induced Tetrad in Mice

Cannabinoid-induced tetrad is a preclinical model commonly used to evaluate if a pharmacological compound is an agonist of the central type-1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptor in rodents. The tetrad is characterized by hypolocomotion, hypothermia, catalepsy, and analgesia, four phenotypes that are induced by acute administration of CB1 agonists exemplified by the prototypic cannabinoid delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This unit describes a standard protocol in mice to induce tetrad phenotypes with THC as reference cannabinoid. We provide typical results obtained with this procedure showing a dose effect of THC in different mouse strains. The effect of the CB1 antagonist rimonabant is also shown. This tetrad protocol is well adapted to reveal new compounds acting on CB1 receptors in vivo. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Keywords: cannabinoid; tetrad; CB1 receptors; mice