Je. Finkelstein et al., MILACEMIDE TREATMENT IN MICE ENHANCES ACQUISITION OF A MORRIS-TYPE WATER MAZE TASK, Pharmacology, biochemistry and behavior, 49(3), 1994, pp. 707-710
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.