Kaveh Tabrizian - Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
Najmeh Sadat Yaghoobi - Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
Mehrdad Iranshahi - Biotechnology Research Center and School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Jafar Shahraki - Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
Ramin Rezaee - Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran
Mahmoud Hashemzaei - Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran

Objective(s): Auraptene (۷-geranyloxycoumarin) (AUR), from Citrus species has shown anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and beta-secretase inhibitory effects. Scopolamine is a nonselective muscarinic receptor antagonist which causes short-term memory impairments and is used for inducing animal model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This research aimed to investigate the effect of AUR on scopolamine-induced avoidance memory retention deficits in step-through task in mice. Materials and Methods: The effect of four-day pre-training injections of AUR (۵۰, ۷۵, and ۱۰۰ mg/kg, subcutaneous (SC)) and scopolamine (۱ mg/kg, IP), and their co-administration on avoidance memory retention in step-through passive avoidance task, was investigated by measuring the latency to enter to the dark chamber. Results:Pre-training administration of AUR caused significant increase in step-through latency in comparison with control group, ۴۸, ۹۶, and ۱۶۸ hr after training trial. The findings of this study showed that scopolamine (۱ mg/kg, IP, for four consecutive days) impaired passive avoidance memory retention compared to saline-treated animals. Step-through passive avoidance task results showed that AUR markedly reversed scopolamine-induced avoidance memory retention impairments, ۲۴ and ۱۶۸ hr after training trial in step-through task. Conclusion: Results from co-administration of AUR and scopolamine showed that AUR reversed scopolamine-induced passive avoidance memory retention impairments.

Auraptene, Avoidance memory-retention, Mice, Scopolamine, Shuttle box