Acetyl‐L‐carnitine and α‐lipoic acid supplementation of aged beagle dogs improves learning in two landmark discrimination tests

ABSTRACT Beagle dogs between 7.6 and 8.8 years of age administered a twice daily supplement of α‐lipoic acid (LA) and acetyl‐ l ‐carnitine (ALC) over ~2 months made significantly fewer errors in reaching the learning criterion on two landmark discrimination tasks compared to controls administered a methylcellulose placebo. Testing started after a 5 day wash‐in. The dogs were also tested on a variable delay version of a previously acquired spatial memory task; results were not significant. The improved performance on the landmark task of dogs supplemented with LA + ALC provides evidence of the effectiveness of this supplement in improving discrimination and allocentric spatial learning. We suggest that long‐term maintenance on LA and ALC may be effective in attenuating age‐associated cognitive decline by slowing the rate of mitochondrial decay and cellular aging.—Milgram N. W., Araujo, J. A., Hagen, T. M., Treadwell, B. V., Ames B. N. Acetyl‐ l ‐carnitine and α‐lipoic acid supplementation of aged beagle dogs improves learning in two landmark discrimination tests. FASEB J. 21, 3756–3762 (2007)