Attenuation of cycloheximide-induced amnesia in mice with strychnine sulfate

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of strychnine sulfate in attenuating the amnesia induced in mice by small doses of cycloheximide (CYC). Previously, reversal of CYC-induced amnesia catecholamine agonists has been taken as evidence that protein synthesis inhibitors induce amnesia via an inhibition of catecholamine synthesis. The results of Experiment 1 suggested that strychnine sulfate could attenuate an amnesia induced by 30 mg/kg CYC, and the results of Experiment 2 revealed that even the robust amnesia induced by 75 mg/kg CYC could be attenuated by strychnine sulfate. The results of these experiments support the results of previous experiments which showed that agents having little or no effect on the catecholamines can nonetheless attenuate amnesia induced by the protein synthesis inhibitors. Thus, some method other than attenuation of the retention deficit by catecholamine agonists must be used to test the hypothesis that protein synthesis inhibitors induce amnesia via an inhibition of catecholamine synthesis.