Concomitant manipulation of murine NMDA- and AMPA-receptors to produce pro-cognitive drug effects in mice.

Bifunctional drug therapy targeting distinct receptor signalling systems can generate increased efficacy at lower concentrations compared to monofunctional therapy. Non-competitive blockade of the NMDA receptors or the potentiation of AMPA receptors is well documented to result in memory enhancement. Here, we compared the efficacy of the low-affinity NMDA receptor blocker memantine or the positive modulator of AMPA receptor QXX (in C57BL/6J at 1 or 5mg/kg, ip) with new derivatives of isothiourea (0.

Anhedonic-like traits and lack of affective deficits in 18-month-old C57BL/6 mice: Implications for modeling elderly depression.

The prevalence of depression increases with aging. We hypothesized that like humans, old animals exhibit anhedonic-like behavior, along with signs of behavioral despair. In rodents, anhedonia, a reduced sensitivity to reward, which is listed as a core feature of major depression in the DSM-IVR, can be measured by a decrease in intake of and preference for sweet solutions.

Dimebon enhances hippocampus-dependent learning in both appetitive and inhibitory memory tasks in mice.

Pre-clinical and clinical studies on dimebon (dimebolin or latrepirdine) have demonstrated its use as a cognitive enhancer. Here, we show that dimebon administered to 3-month-old C57BL6N mice 15 min prior to training in both appetitive and inhibitory learning tasks via repeated (0.1 mg/kg) and acute (0.