The novel dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) derivative BNN27 counteracts delay-dependent and scopolamine-induced recognition memory deficits in rats.

Experimental evidence indicates that the neurosteroids dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) are involved in cognition. BNN27 is a novel 17C spiroepoxy-DHEA derivative, which devoid of steroidogenic activity. The neuroprotective effects of BNN27 have been recently reported. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of BNN27 on recognition memory in rats. For this purpose, the novel object task (NOT), a procedure assessing non-spatial recognition memory and the novel location task (NLT), a procedure evaluating spatial recognition memory were used. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of BNN27 (3 and 10mg/kg) antagonized delay-dependent deficits in the NOT in the normal rat, suggesting that this DHEA derivative affected acquisition, storage and retrieval of information. In addition, BNN27 (3 and 10mg/kg, i.p.) counteracted the scopolamine [0.2mg/kg, subcutaneously (s.c.)]-induced non-spatial and spatial recognition memory deficits. These findings suggest that BNN27 may modulate different aspects of recognition memory, potentially interacting with the cholinergic system, relevant to cognition.