Effect of 7-(β-hydroxyethyl) theophylline and 8-phenyl theophylline on the acquisition and retention on the space memory of mice

Neurodegenerative diseases have an increasing prevalence in the population over 65 years of age. In this context, adenosine antagonists have a neuromodulatory role mainly in the hippocampus region, contributing to the maintenance and improvement of memory. Adenosine antagonists are promising in studies of preventive drugs for complications of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of 7- (β-hydroxyethyl) theophylline and 8-phenyl theophylline, on the acquisition and retention of spatial memory of mice. Method: in this study were used male Swiss mice weighing 25-30 g and subdivided into two experiments, one for each drug. In each experiment two moments of application were performed, before and after the training / test section, with three dilutions for each drug evaluated. The mice were submitted to training sessions at the Morris Water Maze (MWM) for four days (three sessions per day) and were submitted to the test after 48 h of the last training, and the time for each animal to find the hidden platform was measured. Data were analyzed using Two-Way Reapeated-Measure ANOVA followed by Tukey post-hoc test where appropriate (p < 0.05). Results: The drugs did not reduce the latency for the animal to find the platform: group I (p = 0.089), II (p = 0.641), III (p = 0.089) and IV (p = 0.290) with significant effect in relation to the training day / test: group I (p <0.001), II (p <0.02), III (p <0.001) and IV (p <0.001). Conclusion: It is concluded that LAM is a useful test to evaluate the acquisition and retention of spatial memory in mice and that the experimental drugs tested had no effect on spatial memory, regardless of dosage and time of application.