We recently reported that a hypothalamic hormone, oxytocin, participates in the regulation of learning and memory performance. However, no report has demonstrated the effect of oxytocin on the synthetic cathinone 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV)-induced impairment of synaptic plasticity. In this study, we examined the effects of oxytocin on the MDPV-induced impairment of memory and hippocampal synaptic plasticity in mice.
Male ICR mice were used. Mice were chronically administrated MDPV (s.c.) for 5 days. Spontaneous alterations in Y-maze test were tested 5-6 days after the last MDPV exposure. Acute hippocampal slices were prepared from control and MDPV-treated mice for extracellular recording, and assessed long-term potentiation (LTP) with perfusion of oxytocin.
Chronic administration of MDPV produced the significant decrease the spontaneous alterations in Y-maze test. Hippocampal LTP in MDPV-treated mice was significantly weaker than that in control mice. Interestingly, we found that oxytocin reversed the impairment of hippocampal LTP induced by chronic treatment of MDPV. 
This is the first report to demonstrate that oxytocin could reverse the effects of MDPV on hippocampal LTP in mice. We propose that oxytocin would be a therapeutics target for the MDPV-induced memory dysfunction.