Ganglioside GM1 attenuates scopolamine-induced amnesia in rats and mice

Abstract

Some experimental evidence suggests that the beneficial effects of monosialoganglioside GM1 on learning and memory could be related to an improving effect in central cholinergic function. The present study investigates the effects of GM1 on the memory impairment induced by scopolamine in rats or mice tested in passive (PA) and discriminative avoidance (DA) tasks, respectively. Wistar EPM-1 male rats and Swiss EPM-M1 male mice were treated daily IP with 50 mg/kg GM1 or saline for 7 or 14 days, respectively. Twenty-four hours after the last injection, GM1-treated animals received 1 mg/kg scopolamine (GM1-SCO) and saline-treated animals received 1 mg/kg scopolamine (SAL-SCO) or saline (SAL-SAL) IP. Twenty minutes later, the animals were submitted to PA or DA conditioning, and tests were performed 24 h later. The latency in entering the dark chamber of the PA apparatus (LD) presented by SAL-SCO rats was significantly decreased when compared to that presented by SAL-SAL animals. GM1-SCO animals showed an increased LD when compared to SAL-SCO animals and were not significantly different from SAL-SAL rats. GM1-SCO and SAL-SAL (but not SAL-SCO) mice spent significantly less time in the aversive enclosed arm of the discriminative avoidance apparatus when compared to the time spent in the non-aversive enclosed arm. The results are consistent with the interpretation that GM1 attenuates scopolamine-induced amnesia. Although not eliminating the participation of other transmitter systems, the present study indicates a possible role of central cholinergic transmission in the action of this compound on learning and memory.

Effects of amphetamine on the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task in mice

“…This kind of inhibitory effect has been reported for scopolamine (Claro et al 1999;Silva et al 1999) and chlordiazepoxide pre-training administration. Alternatively, learning/memory reduction can be evaluated by an increase in the percentage time spent in the aversive enclosed arm (time in the aversive enclosed arm/time in both enclosed arms) in the test, even if the animals were still able to avoid the aversive enclosed arms.…”

“…The performance of adult rats in DAT was also improved by neonatal GM1 administration . In addition, both GM1 and bovine brain phosphatidylserine (proposed as a treatment of Alzheimer's disease - Crook et al 1992) were able to attenuate scopolamine-induced amnesia in mice tested in this DAT (Claro et al 1999;Silva et al 1999).…”

Short-term social isolation induces depressive-like behaviour and reinstates the retrieval of an aversive task: Mood-congruent memory in male mice?

“…[17][18][19] The aversive stimuli consisted of a 100 W light and an 80 dB noise. The source of the noise was the horizontal displacement of a piece of metal against wood produced continuously by a small machine placed under the arm.…”

“…Our goal was to investigate whether SI-induced depressive-like behaviour would facilitate the retrieval of an aversive (negatively valenced) task: the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PM-DAT). [17][18][19] Because our hypothesis presumes that depressive-like behaviour induced by SI would facilitate the retrieval of an aversive task, we first determined a forgetting curve. Then, SI effects were evaluated at a time point at which control mice did not retrieve the task, thereby avoiding a ceiling effect.…”

The role and potential of sialic acid in human nutrition

“…Exogenously applied gangliosides are taken up by neurons and integrated into the plasma membrane in the same way as endogenous gangliosides (Morgan & Winick, 1981;Dreyfus et al, 1984) and have been shown to influence the activity of a number of types of neural circuits (Agnati et al, 1983;Silva et al, 1999). Recent studies in rodents demonstrate that gangliosides given intraperitoneally can protect The role and potential of sialic acid B Wang and J Brand-Miller against or reverse age-or lesion-induced memory deficits.…”