The selective 5-HT6 receptor antagonist SLV has putative cognitive- and social interaction enhancing properties in rodent models of cognitive impairment.

In the present study, our aim was to investigate whether the novel highly selective 5-hydroxytryptamine6 (5-HT6) receptor antagonist SLV can ameliorate impairments in cognition and social interaction with potential relevance for both schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). SLV sub-chronically - treated Wistar rats reared in isolation showed significantly enhanced prepulse inhibition (PPI) and object recognition performance when compared to vehicle - treated rats. In the isolated rats, also a significant reduction in expression of hippocampal neural cell adhesion molecule polysialylation (NCAM-PSA) was found which was ameliorated following treatment with SLV (30mg/kg). The social engagement deficit in rats exposed in utero (on gestational day 12.5) to valproic acid (VPA) was reversed by treatment with SLV (30mg/kg). SLV (20 and 30mg/kg, p.o.) fully reversed MK-801 - induced deficits in the ORT and also scopolamine - induced deficits in both the Object Recognition Task (ORT) and Object Location Task (OLT) in Wistar rats. In addition, a combination of sub-optimal doses of SLV and donepezil attenuated scopolamine-induced ORT deficits. Furthermore, SLV (10mg/kg, p.o.) reversed spontaneous alternation deficits in the T-maze induced by MK-801 administration in Swiss mice and in aged C57Bl/6J mice. SLV additionally improved T-Maze spatial learning and passive avoidance learning in Sprague-Dawley rats with amyoid-beta (Aß) injections into the hippocampus. In contrast, no benefits were found with SLV or the tested reference compounds (donepezil and RVT-101) on cognitive performance of 12months old Tg2576 mice. Also, in the social recognition task, an absence of cognitive enhancing properties was observed with SLV on "normal forgetting" in Wistar rats. Finally, analysis of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) frequency recorded from pyramidal cells revealed a reduction in the presence of 1µM of SLV. In conclusion, SLV was investigated in several rodent animal models and found to be effective at a least effective dose (LED) of 20mg/kg and 10mg/kg (p.o.) in the rat and the mouse, respectively.

Solution structure of the sequence-specific HMG box of the lymphocyte transcriptional activator Sox-4.

Two groups of HMG box proteins are distinguished. Proteins in the first group contain multiple HMG boxes, are non-sequence-specific, and recognize structural features as found in cruciform DNA and cross-over DNA. The abundant chromosomal protein HMG-1 belongs to this subgroup. Proteins in the second group carry a single HMG box with affinity for the minor groove of the heptamer motif AACAAAG or variations thereof. A solution structure for the non-sequence-specific C-terminal HMG box of HMG-1 has recently been proposed. Now, we report the solution structure of the sequence-specific HMG-box of the SRY-related protein Sox-4. NMR analysis demonstrated the presence of three alpha-helices (Val10-Gln22, Glu30-Leu41 and Phe50-Tyr65) connected by loop regions (Ser23-Ala49 and Leu42-Pro49). Helices I and II are positioned in an antiparallel mode and form one arm of the HMG box. Helix III is less rigid, makes an average angle of about 90 degrees with helices I and II, and constitutes the other arm of the molecule. As in HMG1B, the overall structure of the Sox-4 HMG box is L-shaped and is maintained by a cluster of conserved, mainly aromatic residues.