The use of lithium is well established in bipolar disorders and the benefits are being demonstrated in neurodegenerative disorders. Recently, our group showed that treatment with microdose lithium stabilized the cognitive deficits observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. In order to verify the lithium microdose potential in preventing the disease development, the aim of this work was to verify the effects of chronic treatment with microdose lithium given before and after the appearance of symptoms in a mouse model of a disease similar to AD. Transgenic mice (Cg-Tg(PDGFB-APPSwInd)20Lms/2J) and their non-transgenic litter mate genetic controls were treated with lithium carbonate (1.2 mg/Kg/day in drinking water) for 16 or 8 months starting at two and ten months of age, respectively. Similar groups were treated with water. At the end of treatments, both lithium treated transgenic groups and non-transgenic mice showed no memory disruption, different from what was observed in the water treated transgenic group. Transgenic mice treated with lithium since two months of age showed decreased number of senile plaques, no neuronal loss in cortex and hippocampus and increased BDNF density in cortex, when compared to non-treated transgenic mice. It is suitable to conclude that these data support the use of microdose lithium in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, once the neurohistopathological characteristics of the disease were modified and the memory of transgenic animals was maintained.

There is an error within the fourth sentence of the Abstract. The correct sentence is: Transgenic mice (Cg-Tg(PDGFB-APPSwInd)20Lms/2J) and their non-transgenic litter mate genetic controls were treated with lithium carbonate (0.25mg/Kg/day in drinking water) for 16 or 8 months starting at two and ten months of age, respectively.There is an error within the first sentence of the second paragraph of the Results and Discussion section. The correct sentence is: Lithium was administered as lithium carbonate in the dose 0.25 mg/Kg/day.

The bradykinin (BK) receptors B1R and B2R are involved in inflammatory responses and their activation can enhance tissue damage. The B2R is constitutively expressed and mediates the physiologic effects of BK, whereas B1R expression is induced after tissue damage. Recently, they have been involved with Alzheimer's disease, ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). In this study, we investigated the role of bradykinin in short and long-term memory consolidation (STM and LTM). It was observed that bilateral injection of BK (300 pmol/μl) disrupted the STM consolidation but not LTM, both evaluated by inhibitory avoidance test. The STM disruption due to BK injection was blocked by the previous injection of the B1R antagonist des-Arg10-HOE140 but not by the B2R antagonist HOE140. Additionally, the injection of the B1 agonist desArg9-BK disrupted STM and LTM consolidation at doses close to physiological concentration of the peptide (2.3 and 37.5 pmol, respectively) which could be reached during tissue injury. The presence of B1R located on glial cells around the implanted guide cannula used for peptide injection was confirmed by immunofluorescence. These data imply in a possible participation of B1R in the STM impairment observed in TBI, neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.

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