Scopolamine-treated Mice
Scopolamine is a tropane alkaloid drug with competitive antagonism at muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR). Systemic application of scopolamine disrupts the performance in several reference memory tasks, such as object discrimination, radial arm maze, water maze and fear conditioning. The scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment can be reversed by cholinesterase inhibitors. Therefore, this model can be used to mimic cognitive dysfunction observed in dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease and is a useful initial screening method to identify therapeutic candidates.
Figure 1: Effect of 1.0 mg/kg Scopolamine (Scop) on Passive Avoidance response of Wistar rats. Latency to enter the dark compartment. Effect of Scopolamine can be reduced by 1.0 mg/kg methylphenidate treatment. Mean ± SEM; Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn`s multiple comparison test. n = 12 per group; **p<0.01.