Interferon-alpha-induced deficits in novel object recognition are rescued by chronic exercise.
The anti-viral drug interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) is widely-known to induce psychiatric and cognitive effects in patients. Previous work has shown that physical exercise can have a positive effect against brain insult. We investigated the effects of a clinically-comparable treatment regime of IFN-alpha on cognitive function in male Wistar rats and assessed the impact of chronic treadmill running on the deficits generated by IFN-alpha. We found that IFN-alpha induced significant impairments in performance on both spatial novelty and object novelty recognition. Chronic forced exercise did not protect against IFN-alpha-induced learning deficits in reactivity to spatial change, but did restore the capacity for novel object recognition in IFN-alpha-treated animals.
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Bríana
B
Fahey
Sally
S
Barlow
Jennifer S
JS
Day
Shane M
SM
O'Mara
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D016898:Interferon-alpha