Histamine H3-receptor antagonism improves memory retention and reverses the cognitive deficit induced by scopolamine in a two-trial place recognition task

Several reports have indicated that, under different experimental conditions, the administration of histamine H-3-receptor antagonists exerts procognitive effects by activating central histaminergic transmission. In the present study the action of thioperamide, a H-3-receptor blocker, is investigated on consolidation and recall mechanisms of the rat place recognition memory. The animals have been tested on a two-trial delayed comparison paradigm in a Y-maze. Thioperamide enhances the memory retention when administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) post-acquisition (0.7 and 5.0 mg/kg are ineffective, whereas the dose of 2.0 mg/kg improves memory) but does not affect the rat performance when injected 45 min prior to the testing trial. The post-acquisition effect of thioperamide is time-dependent since the administration of the drug 30 min after the end of the training trial has no effect on memory. In addition, thioperamide reverses the amnesia induced by the post-acquisition treatment with 0.02 mg/kg i.p. of scopolamine (SCOP). The procognitive effect of thioperamide is not modified by the contemporary administration of pyrilamine, an histamine H-1-receptor antagonist. On the contrary, the blockade of H-2-receptors by zolantidine 10 mg/kg reverses both the effect of thioperamide alone and the drug action on the scopolamine-induced memory deficit. The results indicate that the neuronal histamine released in consequence of the post-acquisition thioperamide treatment improves place recognition memory through the activation of postsynaptic H-2-receptors. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.