D-062 | Neonatal treatment with clonazepam disrupts episodic like-memory in young adult male rats

Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Maria Florencia Rossetti | Email: mfrossetti@fbcb.unl.edu.ar

María Florencia Rossetti^1°, Guillermina Canesini^1°3°, Pamela Fernández^1°3°,  Luisa Gaydou^1°2°, Agustín García^1°, Cora Stoker^1°2°, Jorge Guillermo Ramos^1°2°

^1° Instituto de Salud y Ambiente del Litoral (ISAL), Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa-CONICET, Santa Fe, Argentina.
^2° Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica y Cuantitativa, Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina.
^3° Cátedra de Nutrición en Situaciones Patológicas, Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina

Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are central nervous system depressants and GABAA positive allosteric modulators. BZDs are generally prescribed for the treatment of sleep and anxiety disorders, anticonvulsant, and acute responses to trauma. However, concerns have arisen about the effects that early exposure to BZDs may have on brain development, particularly in pediatric patients.
The aims of our work were to explore the effects of neonatal treatment with clonazepam on behavior and to analyze enriched environment as a mitigating factor. Male pups were treated intraperitoneally from postnatal day (PND) 7 to 11 with clonazepam (1 mg/kg/day; CLONA) or saline solution (CON). On PND21, some of the rats were kept in the standard laboratory environment (SE), while others were housed in enriched environments (EE; with objects and toys). At PND75, animals were tested in locomotion activity, episodic like-memory (ELM) and anxiety like-behavior test.
CON animals housed in SE exhibited a good performance in ELM, while CLONA group failed to distinguish between the presented objects, suggesting impairment in this type of memory. No differences were observed in locomotor activity between CON and CLONA groups in SE (distance traveled, time/entries to the periphery and to the center, fecal boli). Results of anxiety like-behavior and those of the animals exposed to EE are currently being analyzed. These first analysis show that neonatal treatment with clonazepam produces long-term behavioral effect.