Repeated Administration of Histamine Improves Memory Retrieval of Inhibitory Avoidance by Lithium in Mice

Abstract

The influence of repeated administration of histamine on lithium-induced state dependency has been investigated. A single-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance task was used to assess memory in adult male NMRI mice. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of lithium (10 mg/kg), immediately after training (post-training), impaired inhibitory avoidance memory on the test day. Pre-test administration of lithium reversed amnesia induced by the drug given after training, with the maximum response at a dose of 10 mg/kg. Repeated intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) administration of histamine (20 µg/mouse) for 3 consecutive days followed by 5 days of no drug treatment improved memory retrieval of inhibitory avoidance by a pre-test lower dose (5 mg/kg i.p.) of lithium. In contrast, 3 days of i.c.v. injections of both the histamine H1 receptor antagonist pyrilamine (40 µg/mouse) and the histamine H2 receptor antagonist ranitidine (6.25 and 12.5 µg/mouse) prevented the improving effect of pre-test lithium (10 mg/kg i.p.) on memory retrieval. The results suggest that the repeated administration of histaminergic agents may induce a sensitization which affects the memory impairment induced by lithium.

Dorsal hippocampal CA1 NMDA receptors mediate the interactive effects of quetiapine and lithium on memory retention in male rats

“…These results are in agreement with our prior study and other studies, which have found that systemic and/or intra-CA1 administration of lithium impairs memory formation by altering information coding and synaptic plasticity, resulting in induction of amnesia in a variety of tasks (Pachet and Wisniewski, 2003, Senturk et al, 2007, Zarrindast et al, 2008, Parsaei et al, 2016, Amiri et al, 2020. Hence, the effects of lithium on the brain may be particularly relevant to hippocampal-dependent cognitive processes.…”

Memory in humans is unaffected by central H1-antagonism, while objectively and subjectively measured sedation is increased

“…For example, injection of the H 1 -antagonist pyrilamine into the amygdala was also found to impair memory functioning (Alvarez and Ruarte, 2004). Conversely, increasing histaminergic activity by pharmacologically blocking presynaptic H 3 -autoreceptors has been found to improve memory performance (Bacciottini et al, 2001;Zarrindast et al, 2008,). H 3 -antagonists have therefore attracted the attention of pharmaceutical companies as potential cognition enhancers.…”

H1 but not H2 histamine antagonist receptors mediate anxiety-related behaviors and emotional memory deficit in mice subjected to elevated plus-maze testing

“…It is accepted that synaptic plasticity is the cellular basis of emotional memory because long-term potentiation is correlated with memory trace formation (2). Studies have also investigated the effects of H 1 and H 2 histaminergic receptor activation on emotional memory in animals (9, 10) and humans (11). …”