The
importance of HDAC3 in transcriptional regulation of genes
associated with long-term memory is well established. Here, we report
a novel HDAC3 inhibitor, PT3, with an excellent blood–brain
barrier permeability and ability to enhance long-term memory in mouse
model of novel object recognition (NOR). PT3 exhibited higher selectivity
for HDAC3 over HDAC1, HDAC6, and HDAC8 compared to the reference compound
CI994. PT3 has significant distribution into the brain tissue with C
max at 0.5 h and t
1/2 of 2.5 h. Treatment with PT3 significantly improved the discrimination
index in C57/BL6 mice in the NOR model. Brain tissue analysis of mice
treated with PT3 for NOR test showed significant increase in H3K9
acetylation in hippocampus. Gene expression analysis by RT-qPCR of
the hippocampus tissue revealed upregulation of CREB 1, BDNF, TRKB,
Nr4a2, c-fos, PKA, GAP 43, PSD 95 and MMP9 expression in mice treated
with PT3. Similar to the phenotype observed in the in vivo experiment, we found upregulation of H3K9 acetylation, CREB 1, BDNF,
TRKB, Nr4a2, c-fos, PKA, GAP 43 and MMP9 expression in mouse neuronal
(N2A) cells treated with PT3. Thus, our preclinical studies identify
PT3 as a potential HDAC3 selective inhibitor that crosses the blood–brain
barrier and improves the long-term memory formation in C57/BL6 mice.
We propose PT3 as a candidate with therapeutic potential to treat
age-related memory loss as well as other disorders with declined memory
function like Alzheimer’s disease.