Involvement of PKA, MAPK/ERK and CaMKII, but not PKC in the acute antidepressant-like effect of memantine in mice

This study investigated the cellular signaling pathways involved in the acute antidepressant-like action of memantine in the forced swimming test (FST) in mice. The immobility time in the FST was reduced by memantine (3–10 mg/kg, i.p.). The anti-immobility effect of memantine (3 mg/kg, i.p.) was prevented by pretreatment with H-89 (1 μg/site, i.c.v., an inhibitor of PKA), PD098059 (5 μg/site, i.c.v., an inhibitor of MAPK/ERK), KN-62 (1 μg/site, i.c.v., an inhibitor of CaMKII), but not with chelerythrine (1 μg/site, i.c.v., an inhibitor of PKC). Taken together, these results firstly demonstrate that the acute antidepressant-like effect of memantine seems to be dependent on the cellular signaling modulated by PKA, CaMKII and MAPK/ERK, but not by PKC.