Cremophor el

Starting after a 4-week recovery period, animals with a 6-OHDA lesion that met the inclusion criterion of three or fewer forelimb adjusting steps received drug treatments on five consecutive days/week (Mon–Fri), for two or three weeks. In week 1, all rats received a daily vehicle injection (10% Cremophor EL in 0.9% saline, 2 mL/kg, i.p.; Sigma-Aldrich), followed 30 min later by the L-DOPA (LD) injection (5 mg/kg, i.p., 2 mL/kg; Alfa Aesar, Tewksbury, MA, USA; coadministered with 12.5 mg/kg benserazide HCl; Sigma-Aldrich). In week 2, one cohort received the same treatment of vehicle + L-DOPA as in week 1 (6/Veh/LD; n = 8), and a second cohort received a treatment of vilazodone HCl (VIL) (10 mg/kg, i.p.; Cayman Chemical, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; in 10% Cremophor EL), followed 30 min later by L-DOPA (6/VIL/LD; n = 14).
To assess a potential role for 5-HTr_1A in mediating the actions of vilazodone, a third cohort of 6-OHDA-infused rats received vehicle + L-DOPA (6/Veh/LD) in week 1, vilazodone + L-DOPA (6/VIL/LD) in week 2, and in week 3, they received the selective 5-HTr_1A antagonist N-[2-[4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-piperazinyl]ethyl]-N-2-pyridinyl-cyclo- hexanecarboxamide, 2Z-butenedioate (WAY-100635 (WAY); 0.5 mg/kg, i.p.; Cayman Chemical) 5 min prior to the vilazodone treatment (6/W/VIL/LD; n = 11), in a within-subject design.