Fig. 1: MMAE treatment does not alter the locomotor skills or anxiety-like behavior in mice and Lithium prevents short-term memory loss induced by MMAE in mice.

a Timeline of the injection protocol for in vivo experiments. b The open field test showed no significant difference among the groups in exploration into the center or the edge, indicating no anxiety-like behavior among the groups (n = 6 each). c The measurement of the distance traveled showed no statistical difference among the groups, suggesting no impact on locomotor skills. d The mice had the same tendency to explore in the Elevated Plus Maze, with no significant difference related to anxiety-like behavior among the treatment groups. e Visual representation of the Novel Object Recognition Test protocol. f Training sessions for the Novel Object Recognition Test showed no statistical difference between the two objects, suggesting no preference for either object. Heat maps from training sessions demonstrating the relative time spent exploring each object (1 = Object 1, 2 = Object 2). g Both the saline (n = 13) and lithium (n = 14) treatment groups were able to identify which object was changed (p < 0.001; p < 0.0001), whereas the MMAE group (n = 15) expressed no significant difference between familiar and novel objects (p > 0.05). The LiCl+MMAE group (n = 14) showed the ability to differentiate the objects, indicating that lithium pretreatment protects the mice from cognitive impairment induced by MMAE (p < 0.001). Heat maps from the Novel Object Recognition Test demonstrating the relative time of exploration for each object (F Familiar Object, N Novel Object).