Effect of rivastigmine on scopolamine-induced memory impairment in rats

Corina Bejar, Rui Hua Wang, Marta Weinstock*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

177 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of rivastigmine on memory impairments induced in rats by scopolamine (0.5 mg/kg) was assessed in the Morris water maze and passive avoidance tests and compared with that of tacrine (2.5-17.7 mg/kg). Rivastigmine, (0.5-2.5 mg/kg) inhibited cholinesterase in the cortex and hippocampus by 21-60% and antagonised the deficits in working and reference memory. Tacrine (12.5 and 17.7 mg/kg) produced significantly less inhibition of cholinesterase in the hippocampus but more in the striatum than rivastigmine (0.75 and 1.5 mg/kg) and only antagonised the deficit in reference memory. Rivastigmine (1.5 and 2.5 mg/kg) or tacrine (12.5 mg/kg), injected immediately after completion of the acquisition trial in the passive avoidance test, antagonised the deficit induced by scopolamine (1 mg/kg) in memory retention. The inability of higher doses of the cholinesterase inhibitors to antagonise memory deficits induced by scopolamine may be related to excessive cholinergic stimulation in the central nervous system. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)231-240
Number of pages10
JournalEuropean Journal of Pharmacology
Volume383
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Nov 1999
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cholinesterase inhibition, brain
  • Muscarinic receptor
  • Passive avoidance
  • Reference memory
  • Working memory

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