Adenosine A2A Receptor Modulation of Hippocampal CA3-CA1 Synapse Plasticity During Associative Learning in Behaving Mice

Previous in vitro studies have characterized the electrophysiological and molecular signaling pathways of adenosine tonic modulation on long-lasting synaptic plasticity events, particularly for hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). However, it remains to be elucidated whether the long-term changes produced by endogenous adenosine in the efficiency of synapses are related to those required for learning and memory formation. Our goal was to understand how endogenous activation of adenosine excitatory A(2A) receptors modulates the associative learning evolution in conscious behaving mice. We have studied here the effects of the application of a highly selective A(2A) receptor antagonist, SCH58261, upon a well-known associative learning paradigm-classical eyeblink conditioning. We used a trace paradigm, with a tone as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and an electric shock presented to the supraorbital nerve as the unconditioned stimulus (US). A single electrical pulse was presented to the Schaffer collateral-commissural pathway to evoke field EPSPs (fEPSPs) in the pyramidal CA1 area during the CS-US interval. In vehicle-injected animals, there was a progressive increase in the percentage of conditioning responses (CRs) and in the slope of fEPSPs through conditioning sessions, an effect that was completely prevented (and lost) in SCH58261 (0.5 mg/kg, i.p.)-injected animals. Moreover, experimentally evoked LTP was impaired in SCH58261-injected mice. In conclusion, the endogenous activation of adenosine A(2A) receptors plays a pivotal effect on the associative learning process and its relevant hippocampal circuits, including activity-dependent changes at the CA3-CA1 synapse. Neuropsychopharmacology (2009) 34, 1865-1874; doi:10.1038/npp.2009.8; published online 11 February 2009