Developmental treatment with the dopamine D2/3 agonist quinpirole selectively impairs spatial learning in the Morris water maze.

Developmental exposure to the dopamine D2/3 receptor agonist quinpirole is reported to induce D2 priming, impair Morris water maze performance, reduce acoustic startle prepulse inhibition (PPI), and alter locomotor activity. We treated rats from postnatal days 1-21 with the dose reported to induce these effects, 1.0 mg/kg/day, and two higher doses, 2.0 and 4.0 mg/kg/day, or saline. Offspring were tested in the Morris water maze, PPI, exploratory locomotor activity, activity after quinpirole and (+)-methamphetamine challenge, elevated zero maze, light-dark box, marble burying, straight channel swimming, and Cincinnati water maze. In the Morris water maze, all quinpirole groups had longer latencies on test days 3-5 of acquisition, but no effects on reversal or shifted-reduced platform trials. The quinpirole 4.0 mg/kg group had significantly reduced mean search distances on probe trials when combined across the 3 phases of testing but not separately. The male 4.0 mg/kg quinpirole group showed a greater increase in methamphetamine-stimulated activity during the first 10 min after drug challenge but not in the remainder of the 2 h test. No quinpirole effects were found for light-dark box, marble burying, exploratory locomotor activity, straight channel, Cincinnati water maze, or locomotor activity after quinpirole challenge. No effects were found on most measures in the elevated zero maze however the quinpirole 4.0 mg/kg females had longer latencies to enter an open quadrant. The results partially support prior Morris maze deficits induced by developmental quinpirole treatment but little evidence of dopamine D2/3 priming was found using locomotor activity with quinpirole or methamphetamine challenge or acoustic startle/PPI. The limited comparability to published data using developmental quinpirole exposure may be attributable to differences in experimental procedures or may be the result of quinpirole having limited effects. The data suggest that caution is warranted concerning the developmental efficacy of quinpirole.