Clozapine N-Oxide Administration Produces Behavioral Effects in Long-Evans Rats Implications for Designing DREADD Experiments.
Clozapine N-oxide (CNO) is a ligand for a powerful chemogenetic system that can selectively inhibit or activate neurons the so-called Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD) system. This system consists of synthetic G-protein-coupled receptors, which are not believed to be activated by any endogenous ligand, but are activated by the otherwise inert CNO. However, it has previously been shown that the administration of CNO in humans and rats leads to detectable levels of the bioactive compounds clozapine and