Animal models of memory have been considered as the subject of many scientific publications at least since the beginning of the twentieth century. In humans, memory is often accessed through spoken or written language, while in animals, cognitive functions must be accessed through different kind of behaviors in many specific, experimental models of memory and learning. Among them, the novel object recognition test can be evaluated by the differences in the exploration time of novel and familiar objects. Its application is not limited to a field of research and enables that various issues can be studied, such as the memory and learning, the preference for novelty, the influence of different brain regions in the process of recognition, and even the study of different drugs and their effects. This paper describes the novel object recognition paradigms in animals, as a valuable measure of cognition. The purpose of this work was to review the neurobiology and methodological modifications of the test commonly used in behavioral pharmacology.

Schizophrenia and depression are heterogeneous disorders. The complex pathomechanism of the diseases imply that medication responses vary across patients. Many psychotropic drugs are available but achieving optimal therapeutic effect can be challenging. The evidence correlates well with clinical observations, suggesting that new atypical antipsychotic drugs are effective against negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, as well as against affective symptoms observed in depression. The purpose of this review presents the background and evidence for the use of the new second/third-generation antipsychotics (aripiprazole, cariprazine, lurasidone, asenapine, brexpiprazole, lumateperone, pimavanserin) in treatment of schizophrenia and depression. We have first provided a brief overview of the major neurobiological underpinnings of schizophrenia and depression. We then shortly discuss efficacy, safety and limitations of ongoing pharmacotherapy used in depression and schizophrenia. Mainly, we have focused this review on the therapeutic potential of new atypical antipsychotic drugs—currently existing—to be effective in psychotic, as well as in affective disorders.

The processes used by academic and industrial scientists to discover new drugs have recently experienced a true renaissance, with many new and exciting techniques being developed over the past 5–10 years alone. Drug design and discovery, and the search for new safe and well-tolerated compounds, as well as the ineffectiveness of existing therapies, and society’s insufficient knowledge concerning the prophylactics and pharmacotherapy of the most common diseases today, comprise a serious challenge. This can influence not only the quality of human life, but also the health of whole societies, which became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, the process of drug development consists of three main stages: drug discovery, preclinical development using cell-based and animal models/tests, clinical trials on humans and, finally, forward moving toward the step of obtaining regulatory approval, in order to market the potential drug. In this review, we will attempt to outline the first three most important consecutive phases in drug design and development, based on the experience of three cooperating and complementary academic centers of the Visegrád group; i.e., Medical University of Lublin, Poland, Masaryk University of Brno, Czech Republic, and Comenius University Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

Nicotine, the main component of tobacco smoke, exerts influence on mood, and contributes to physical and psychological dependence. Taking into account frequent concomitance of nicotine abuse and stress, we aimed to research behavioral and biochemical effects associated with nicotine administration in combination with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). Mice were submitted to the procedure of CUMS for 4 weeks, 2 h per day. Our results revealed that CUMS-exposed animals exhibited behavioral alteration like anxiety disorders in the elevated plus maze (EPM) test, the disturbances in memory in the passive avoidance (PA) test and depressive effects in the forced swim test (FST). Moreover, nicotine (0.05–0.5 mg/kg), after an acute or subchronic administration decreased stress-induced depression- and anxiety-like effect as well as memory deficit. Administration of metyrapone (50 mg/kg), a glucocorticosteroid antagonist, alleviated the depressive effect induced by the CUMS. The biochemical experiments showed decreased values of the total antioxidant status (TAS), activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) with simultaneously increased in malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in mice submitted to the CUMS. The same effects were observed after an acute and subchronic nicotine administration within all examined brain structures (i.e., hippocampus, cortex, and cerebellum) and in the whole brain in non-stressed and stressed mice confirming pro-oxidative effect of nicotine. Our study contributes to the understanding of behavioral and biochemical mechanisms involved in stress-induced disorders such as depression, anxiety and memory disturbances as well as dual nicotine-stress interactions on the basis of the development of nicotine dependence.