MILACEMIDE TREATMENT IN MICE ENHANCES ACQUISITION OF A MORRIS-TYPE WATER MAZE TASK

The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subtype of the glutamate receptor appe ars to be involved with processes of learning and memory. A neutral am ino acid binding site is known to exist on the NMDA complex. Glycine b inds with high affinity to this site and has been found to potentiate NMDA activity. 2-N-Pentylaminoacetamide HCl (milacemide) is a glycine agonist that has been found to enhance performance of rodents in passi ve and active avoidance tasks and has improved the performance of huma ns in several word retrieval tasks. We evaluated the effects of milace mide on the performance of male C57BL/6J mice in a complex spatial tas k, the Morris water maze. Because NMDA receptor activation appears inv olved in induction Of long-term potentiation, if was hypothesized that milacemide administration would be involved in task acquisition. Ther efore, mice were treated with either milacemide (10 mg/kg) or vehicle 1 h prior to training on each of 4 consecutive days. Results indicated that mice treated with milacemide learned the task significantly fast er than controls over 4 days of training, as measured by mean distance (cm) to reach the goal platform. Therefore, agonism of the glycine si te on the NMDA receptor appears to facilitate performance of learning in a spatial memory task.