| dc.description.abstract | Turning Back the Clock: CGP55845 Reverses Mild Cognitive Impairment in Fischer 344 Rats. (April 2009)
Jeffrey Daniel Mayse
Department of Psychology
Texas A&M University
Research Advisor: Dr. Barry Setlow
Department of Psychology
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a rapidly growing problem, especially in light of the vast increase in the population of the elderly. MCI is characterized by a lack of frank neural loss, unlike Alzheimer’s disease, yet the patient has behavioral impairments in memory, olfactory functioning, and information processing abilities. This study examines the efficacy of CGP55845, a GABAB receptor antagonist, at reversing the effects of odor discrimination deficits in male aged (n = 8 impaired, n = 10 unimpaired) and young (n = 10) F344 rats. Animals were given CGP55845 40 minutes prior to testing in the odor discrimination task. This task is particularly useful for pharmacological studies, since it allows for a within subjects design. Although only a subset of aged rats were impaired on saline trials (trials-to-criterion with saline: aged-impaired, 8.4833; aged-unimpaired, 18.023; control young, 10.15 SD 3.22), those aged-impaired rats showed significant improvement in the task when injected with the drug compared to saline. Performance deficits were not due to inability to detect odors. This study illustrates that CGP55845 is effective at treating age-related cognitive deficits and supports the hypothesis that the GABAergic system is involved in age-related changes in learning and memory. | en |
