D-cycloserine improves memory and anxiety like-behavior in rodents

Newsletter # 94



Animal models


D-cycloserine (DCS) is primarily used as a safe antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis. Furthermore, DCS was also found to mediate central effect through partial agonism of NMDA receptors at the glycine modulatory site. Various clinical studies have been undertaken to investigate the potential benefit of DCS for neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, anxiety and depression. Since then, DCS has widely been used as an effective adjunct to psychotherapy for anxiety-related disorders via facilitation of memory consolidation (reviewed in doi:10.1093/ijnp/pyv102).
At Neurofit, an acute treatment with DCSenhances memory recall in rats and reduces anxiety-like behaviors in mice. These preclinical evidences are supportive of therapeutic potential of DCS in neuropsychological disorders.
  • Enhanced memory retrieval in DCS-treated rats as assessed in the natural forgeting paradigm of the passive avoidance test.

    NEUROFIT website

    Left panel : The graph shows the recall performance of rats in the passive avoidance test.
    1 day after the electric shock, rats still remember the aversive experience and avoid entering the dark chamber.
    After 7 days    , rats forget the association between the context and the foot shock (hence shorter step through latency; grey vs blue column). A single treatment of rats with DCS enhances the recall of the context shock paired-chamber (hence, increased step through latency; blue vs red column).


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  • Enhanced memory retrieval in DCS-treated rats as assessed in the natural forgeting paradigm of the passive avoidance test.

    NEUROFIT website

    Right panel : The graph shows the anxiety status of mice reflected by the amount of time spent in the lit box of (anxiogenic area;blue column) of the test system.
    The treatment of mice with     DCS induces increase the time spent in the lit box suggesting a reduced anxiety status of mice (red vs blue column).


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