Effects of the uncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist memantine on spatial memory in medial septal lesioned rats

These experiments examined the effects of acute administration of memantine (2.5 or 5 mg/kg) or saline on spatial memory and learning process within single sessions, on place versions of food-rewarded maze in MS electrolytic lesioned and sham-lesioned rats. Sham-lesioned rats trained in the place task learned more rapidly than did MS electrolytic lesioned rats. This fact certifies for obvious deficit of the place learning performance strategy in the MS-lesioned rats. The results indicate that the drug-treated (5 mg/kg memantine) sham-lesioned rats exhibited significantly impaired performance relative to the saline controls in terms of trials-to-criterion (P<0.05). 2.5 mg/kg memantine administered 30 min before behavioral testing, did not affect performance in place learning task. 2.5 mg/kg and 5 mg/kg memantine administered before behavioral testing, did not improve performance in place learning task in MS electrolytic lesioned rats. Our experimental data support the interpretation that memantine does not produce intolerable side effects in human AD patients because it is being used at doses that are below the threshold for interacting with NMDA receptors.