Histamine receptor-mediated signaling during development and brain function in adulthood

Histamine might have an important role in brain development. However, most studies have focused on short-term effects of histamine receptor-mediated signaling on brain function in adulthood. Little is known about the potential long-term effects of histamine receptor-mediated signaling during development on brain function in adulthood. We hypothesize that increased postsynaptic histamine receptor-mediated signaling during development has detrimental effects on brain function in adulthood. Our data support this hypothesis. In the developing mouse brain, histamine H3 receptor blockade, which increases histamine release, has detrimental sex-dependent effects on object recognition, spatial learning in the water maze, and pre-pulse inhibition in adulthood. Our data also support the hypothesis that histamine mediates the detrimental long-term sex-dependent effects of methamphetamine exposure early in life on these brain functions in adulthood. Therefore, increased efforts are warranted to carefully evaluate the effects of drugs that directly or indirectly affect histamine receptor-mediated signaling during development on cognitive function later in life.