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Cognitive enhancement following acute losartan in normotensive young adults

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Abstract

Rationale

Losartan, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist (AIIA), is an antihypertensive that has previously been suggested to have cognitive-enhancing potential for older adults. The objective indices for such effects are equivocal, however, and if these drugs do offer dual advantages of hypertension control plus cognitive-enhancing potential, there exists a clear need to establish this directly.

Objectives

This work examines the potential of losartan administered as a single dose to healthy young adults to improve cognitive performance alone or to reverse scopolamine-induced cognitive decrements.

Methods

In two placebo-controlled, double-blind studies, participants completed a cognitive test battery once before and once after drug absorption. In experiment 1, participants were randomly allocated to receive placebo, losartan 50 mg or losartan 100 mg. In experiment 2, participants were randomly allocated to one of four treatment groups: placebo/placebo, placebo/scopolamine, losartan/scopolamine and losartan/placebo (50 mg losartan p.o. and 1.2 mg scopolamine hydrochloride p.o.).

Results

Losartan 50 mg improved performance on a task of prospective memory when administered alone and reversed the detrimental effects of scopolamine both in a standard lexical decision paradigm (p < 0.01) and when the task incorporated a prospective memory component (p < 0.008).

Conclusions

The findings highlight a cognitive-enhancing potential for losartan on compromised cognitive systems and emphasise the potential of AIIAs to produce benefits over and above hypertension control.

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Notes

  1. RTs were calculated for correct ongoing trials only, excluding trials for which a PM response was required.

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Acknowledgements

The first author was funded on a PhD studentship from Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council. Medical cover was provided by the following doctors during their employment with Brighton & Sussex Medical School: Ahmed O, Echlin K, Grice J, Hussein A, Lewis M, Naqvi S, Pepple R, Pressney I, Young A and Yu D.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK

    Rasha Mechaeil & Jennifer Rusted

  2. Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, BN2 4GJ, UK

    Paul Gard & Anne Jackson

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  1. Rasha Mechaeil
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  2. Paul Gard
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  3. Anne Jackson
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  4. Jennifer Rusted
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Correspondence to Jennifer Rusted.

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Mechaeil, R., Gard, P., Jackson, A. et al. Cognitive enhancement following acute losartan in normotensive young adults. Psychopharmacology 217, 51–60 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2257-9

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