Dimebon Enhances Hippocampus-Dependent Learning in Mouse Models of Appetitive Y-Maze and Inhibitory Step-Down Memory Tasks in Mice

Dimebon, a compound recently proposed for a treatment of Alzheimer’s disorder, was suggested to have memory enhancing properties in pre-clinical and clinical studies. We investigated whether dimebon at doses acutely (0.1 mg/kg and 0.5 mg/kg) or repeatedly (0.1 mg/kg) administered to mice via i.p. injections, increases memory scores respectively in an appetitive and an inhibitory learning task. Acute treatment with dimebon at the dose 0.1 mg/kg did not affect learning scores in 3-month-old C57BL/6N. Acute treatment with higher dose of dimebon (0.5mg/kg) was found to enhance inhibitory learning in 3-month-old mice as shown in the step-down avoidance paradigm in C57BL/6N mice. In a model of appetitive learning, a spatial version of the Y-maze, repeated treatment with dimebon increased the rate of correct choices and decreased the latency of accessing a water reward after water deprivation. Repeated administration of dimebon also increased the duration of drinking behaviour during training/testing procedures although water consumption behaviour was not altered. Additional behavioural tests were carried out to investigate possible non-specific effects of dimebon on parameters of drinking, anxiety and exploration/locomotion. Our data suggest that dimebon enhances hippocampus-dependent learning in both appetitive and inhibitory tasks in mice.