Study of oral aniracetam in C57BL/6J mice without pre-existing

Background: The piracetam analog, aniracetam, has recently received attention for its cognition enhancing potential, with minimal reported side effects. Previous studies report the drug to be effective in both human and non-human models with pre-existing cognitive dysfunction, but few studies have evaluated its efficacy in healthy subjects. A previous study performed in our laboratory found no cognitive enhancing effects of oral aniracetam administration 1-hour prior to behavioral testing in naïve C57BL/6J mice. Methods: The current study aims to further evaluate this drug by administration of aniracetam 30 minutes prior to testing in order to optimize any cognitive enhancing effects. In this study, all naïve C57BL/6J mice were tested in tasks of delayed fear conditioning, novel object recognition, rotarod, open field, elevated plus maze, and marble burying. Results: Across all tasks, animals in the treatment group failed to show enhanced learning when compared to controls. Conclusions: These results provide further evidence suggesting that aniracetam conveys no therapeutic benefit to subjects without pre-existing cognitive dysfunction. Joaquin N. Lugo ( ) Corresponding author: [email protected] : Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; : Author roles: Reynolds CD Jefferson TS Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing; : Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing; : Volquardsen M Pandian A Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing; : Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Smith GD Review & Editing; : Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review Lugo JN & Editing Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Reynolds CD, Jefferson TS, Volquardsen M How to cite this article: et al. Study of oral aniracetam in C57BL/6J mice without pre-existing 2017, :1452 (doi: ) cognitive impairments [version 1; referees: awaiting peer review] F1000Research 6 10.12688/f1000research.11023.1 © 2017 Reynolds CD . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the , Copyright: et al Creative Commons Attribution Licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication). Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver This research was supported by intramural funds from Baylor University Research Council. Grant information: The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. 14 Aug 2017, :1452 (doi: ) First published: 6 10.12688/f1000research.11023.1 1,2 2 2 2