Transient global amnesia, both persistent and transient, is a very common neuropsychiatric syndrome. Among animal models for amnesia and testing new drugs, the scopolamine test is the most widely used for transient global amnesia (TGA). This study examined the scopolamine-induced deficits in working memory, discriminative memory, anxiety, and motor activity in the presence of intranasal PEA-OXA, a dual antagonist of presynaptic α2 and H3 receptors. Male C57BL/6 mice were treated with intraperitoneal scopolamine (1 mg/kg) with or without pre-treatment (15 min) or post-treatment (15 min) with intranasal PEA-OXA (10 mg/kg). It was seen that scopolamine induced deficits of discriminative and spatial memory and motor deficit. These changes were associated with a loss of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampal dentate gyrus: impaired LTP after lateral entorhinal cortex/perforant pathway tetanization. Furthermore, hippocampal Ach levels were increased while ChA-T expression was reduced following scopolamine administration. PEA-OXA either prevented or restored the scopolamine-induced cognitive deficits (discriminative and spatial memory). However, the same treatment did not affect the altered motor activity or anxiety-like behavior induced by scopolamine. Consistently, electrophysiological analysis showed LTP recovery in the DG of the hippocampus, while the Ach level and ChoA-T were normalized. This study confirms the neuroprotective and pro-cognitive activity of PEA-OXA (probably through an increase in the extracellular levels of biogenic amines) in improving transient memory disorders for which the available pharmacological tools are obsolete or inadequate and not directed on specific pathophysiological targets.

Gut dysbiosis, characterized by an imbalance in the composition and function of microbiota, has emerged as a critical factor in the regulation of pain transmission and behavior through the gut–brain axis. When dysbiosis occurs, these regulatory functions are disrupted, leading to systemic inflammation and altered signaling at central nervous system. In this study, we examined the therapeutic potential of palmitoyl glucosamine (PGA), a fatty acid amide with sharp anti-inflammatory properties, in a gut dysbiosis condition induced by antibiotic exposure in male mice. At the intestine level, PGA treatment reduced proinflammatory biomarkers and affects gut microbiota balance. Moreover, it reduced visceral hypersensitivity and pain transmission to the spinal cord by reducing the expression of mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo-2. Finally, PGA counteracted the affective comorbidities of dysbiosis, including depressive-like behavior and impaired cognition. This study sheds light on the function of gut microbiota in the control of pain pathways and provides new insights into the advantages of PGA treatment in managing pathological conditions linked to microbiota-related immune and sensory dysregulation.