Short CommunicationAdministration of the inverse benzodiazepine agonist MRK-016 rescues acquisition and memory consolidation following peripheral administration of bacterial endotoxin

•MRK-016 rescued memory acquisition following peripheral LPS administration.•MRK-016 rescued memory consolidation following peripheral LPS administration.•Behavioral differences occurred independently of BDNF mRNA expression.•Neither LPS nor MRK-016 administration altered IGF-1 mRNA expression.

Recent evidence suggests that inflammation-induced decrements in cognitive function can be mitigated via manipulation of excitatory or inhibitory transmission. We tested the ability of the inverse benzodiazepine agonist, MRK-016 (MRK) to protect against LPS-induced deficits in memory acquisition and consolidation, using a contextual fear conditioning (CFC) paradigm. In Experiment One, mice received lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and/or MRK injections prior to CFC training, and were then tested 24 h after training. In Experiment Two, animals received similar treatment injections immediately after training, and were tested 24 h later. Additionally, hippocampal samples were collected 4 h after LPS injections and immediately after testing, to evaluate brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) mRNA expression. Results indicate that MRK can protect against LPS-induced learning/memory decrements in both paradigms. We also found, in both paradigms, that animals treated with LPS/Saline expressed significantly less BDNF mRNA when compared to Saline/Saline-treated animals 4 h after LPS administration, but that MRK did not restore BDNF expression levels. Further, treatment administrations had no effect on IGF-1 mRNA expression at any collection time-point. In summary, MRK-016 can protect against LPS-induced deficits in memory acquisition and consolidation, in this hippocampus-dependent paradigm, though this protection occurs independently of recovery of BDNF expression.