Publication:

A comparative study between cilnidipine and amlodipine on learning and memory in albino mice

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia, followed by vascular dementia (VaD). Animal studies have shown that amlodipine improves learning and memory. Since, cilnidipine produces lesser side effects than amlodipine, and animal studies have shown that it has neuroprotective action, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of cilnidipine on learning and memory and its comparison with amlodipine in alprazolam induced amnesic albino mice.

Methods This study was carried out on albino mice, divided into three groups of six animals each. Amnesia was induced by intraperitoneal injection of alprazolam in all the three groups from day 1 to 14. In addition, group 1, 2 and 3 received normal saline as a control, amlodipine and cilnidipine as test drugs respectively, by same route for the same duration. Then, learning and memory of the animals was assessed using elevated plus maze and cook’s pole climbing models. Results were compared among the groups using one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey’s test.

Results In both the model’s amlodipine and cilnidipine groups showed statistically significant reduction in transfer latency and conditioned avoidance response duration in comparison with normal saline. But no difference was found between amlodipine and cilnidipine groups.

Conclusions Cilnidipine and amlodipine showed a non-inferiority response on learning and memory enhancing effect in this study. Since, cilnidipine has lesser side effects than amlodipine, it can be taken up for evaluating its effect on cognitive improvement in dementia patients.