Octanoic acid suppresses harmaline-induced tremor in mouse model of essential tremor

Recent work exploring the use of high-molecular weight alcohols to treat essential tremor (ET) has identified octanoic acid as a potential novel tremor-suppressing agent. We used an established harmaline-based mouse model of ET to compare tremor suppression by 1-octanol and octanoic acid. The dose-related effect on digitized motion power within the tremor bandwidth as a fraction of overall motion power was analyzed. Both 1-octanol and octanoic acid provided significant reductions in harmaline tremor. An 8-carbon alkyl alcohol and carboxylic acid each suppress tremor in a pre-clinical mouse model of ET. Further studies are warranted to determine the safety and efficacy of such agents in humans with ET.