Systemic administration of GMP induces anxiolytic-like behavior in rats

The glutamatergic system has received considerable attention over the last few years as potential target to develop anxiolytic drugs Guanine based purines (GBPs) play an important neurmodulatory effect in the glutamatergic system Several studies have shown the ability of the GBPs to reduce glutamatergic activity In the present study, we investigated the anxiolytic effect of GBPs - by Guanosina Monophosphate (GMP) administration - in rodents Adult male Wistar rats were pretreated with GMP (10, 25, 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg i p.), or saline (NaCl 09%; i p) (control), or, diazepam (2 mg/kg i p) (positive control) One hour after the injection, the anxiety-related behaviors for each animal was evaluated in the light/dark, elevated plus-aze, and open field tasks Additionally, purines concentration us the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was verified. The administration of 25 and 50 mg/kg GMP was able to promote anxiolytic-like behavior, in the light/dark and elevated plus-maze task, similar to diazepam effect However, no changes in the open field task, or CSF purines concentration were found for either GMP or diazepam treated animals, when compared with saline group Thus, this study suggests that acute administration of GMP was able to decrease the levels of anxiety in classical behavioral tasks (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved