Ciproxifan differentially modifies cognitive impairment evoked by chronic stress and chronic corticosterone administration in rats

• Single dose of ciproxifan reduced stress- and corticosterone-evoked memory declines.
• Ciproxifan helps functional recovery after stress-evoked cognitive impairment.
• Ciproxifan helps functional recovery after corticosterone-evoked cognitive damage.
• There are significant differences in susceptibility to an applied ciproxifan.
• There are major differences in stress vs. glucocorticoids in memory negative impact.

Despite the development of neuroscience and spectacular discoveries, the clear functions and the role of histamine are still not fully understood, especially in the context of the negative impact of prolonged stress exposure on the cognition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the participation of hypercortisolemia in the detrimental effect of stress on cognitive function and their preclusion by affecting the histaminergic system with ciproxifan. Specifically, we attempted to characterize the preventive action of a single dose of ciproxifan (3 mg/kg, i.p.) against an impairment caused by chronic restraint stress as well as parallel exogenous corticosterone (equivalent to that seen in chronically stressed rats), and show differences in the interaction on reference and working memories tested in both aversive (Morris water maze - MWM) and appetitive (Barnes maze–BM) incentives. We found that administration of ciproxifan potently prevented equally deleterious effects of chronic restraint stress (p < 0.01) as well as prolonged administration of corticosterone (p < 0.01), especially in the tests, which themselves generate high levels of stress. As it turns out, test provided in the less stressful conditions (BM) showed that administration of the H3 receptor antagonist to naïve rats resulted in even memory impairment (p < 0.01, in some aspects of reference memory).These data support the idea that modulation of H3 receptors represents a novel and viable therapeutic strategy in the treatment but rather not for prevention of stress-evoked cognitive impairments. Even a single dose abolishes the effect of prolonged exposure to stress or steroids.