acetylcholine

Patients with microvascular angina are characterized by angina pectoris with proof of myocardial ischemia in the absence of any relevant epicardial stenosis and without myocardial disease (type 1 coronary microvascular dysfunction according to Crea and Camici). Structural and functional alterations of the coronary microvessels (diameter < 500 µm) are the reason for this phenomenon. Frequently such alterations are associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Patients with angina pectoris without epicardial stenoses represent for 10 - 50 % of all patients undergoing coronary angiography depending on the clinical presentation...

Cocaine use disorder (CUD) remains a debilitating health problem in the United States for which there are no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment options. Accumulating anatomical and electrophysiological evidence indicates that the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) subtype 5 (M5 ) plays a critical role in the regulation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward circuitry, a major site of action for cocaine and other psychostimulants. In addition, M5 knockout mice exhibit reduced cocaine self-administration behaviors with no differences in sugar pellet-maintained responding relative to wild-type mice...

Discrete Pavlovian reward cues acquire more potent incentive motivational properties (incentive salience), in some animals (sign-trackers; STs) compared to others (goal trackers; GTs). Conversely, GTs appear to be better than STs in processing more complex contextual cues, perhaps reflecting their relatively greater bias for goal-directed cue processing. Here we investigated the activity of two major prefrontal neuromodulatory input systems, dopamine (DA) and acetylcholine (ACh), in response to a discrete Pavlovian cue that was previously paired with cocaine administration in STs and GTs...

Clothianidin is a widely used neonicotinoid insecticide, which is a potent agonist of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in insects. This neurotoxic compound has a negative impact on insect immunity, as it down-regulates the activation of the transcription factor NF-κB. Given the evolutionary conserved role of NF-κB in the modulation of the immune response in the animal kingdom, here we want to assess any effect of Clothianidin on vertebrate defense barriers. In presence of this neonicotinoid insecticide, a pro-inflammatory challenge with LPS on the human monocytic cell line THP-1 results both in a reduced production of the cytokine TNF-α and in a down-regulation of a reporter gene under control of NF-κB promoter...

Artificial receptors able to recognize efficiently chemical species bearing a quaternary ammonium group have potential applications in the fields of biological and environmental analyses. A possible biomimetic strategy for the elaboration of such receptors consists of associating in close proximity a polyaromatic cavity with a polar binding site. Herein, we show that bis-calix[6]arene 1 behaves as a heteroditopic receptor that can bind biologically relevant quaternary ammonium ions and zwitterions. This host can selectively extract carbamylcholine G3 from water, opening the way for the sensing of this acetylcholine agonist...

In recent years, incidence of autoimmune encephalopathies has increased. The diagnosis of the severe form of autoimmune encephalopathy is not difficult; however, milder forms can be misdiagnosed as general encephalopathies. We often treat Hashimoto's encephalopathy, which has diverse clinical symptoms and is often misdiagnosed as a psychosomatic disease. We have found that the neurological findings and symptoms of patients with Hashimoto's encephalopathy are similar to those of psychogenic diseases, such as giveway weakness and atypical sensory disorder...

Microvascular dysfunction originating during a preeclamptic pregnancy persists postpartum and likely contributes to increased CVD risk in these women. One putative mechanism contributing to this dysfunction is increased vasoconstrictor sensitivity to endothelin-1 (ET-1), mediated by alterations in ET-1 receptor type-B (ETBR). We evaluated ET-1 sensitivity, ETAR and ETBR contributions to ET-1-mediated constriction, and the mechanistic role of  ETBR in endothelium-dependent dilation in vivo in the microvasculature of postpartum women who had preeclampsia (PrEC, n=12) and control women who had a healthy pregnancy (HC, n=12)...

BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated that antihypertensive treatment with renin-angiotensin system inhibitors restores the impaired endothelium-dependent hyperpolarization (EDH)-mediated responses in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Herein, we investigated whether the angiotensin II receptor-neprilysin inhibitor sacubitril/valsartan (LCZ696) would improve reduced EDH-mediated responses and whether LCZ696 would exert additional effects on endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasorelaxation compared with an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker alone during hypertension...

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a consequence of peripheral nerve fiber dysfunction or degeneration, continues to be a dose-limiting and debilitating side effect during and/or after cancer chemotherapy. Paclitaxel, a taxane commonly used to treat breast, lung, and ovarian cancers, causes CIPN in 59-78% of cancer patients. Novel interventions are needed due to the current lack of effective CIPN treatments. Our studies were designed to investigate if nicotine can prevent and/or reverse paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy in a mouse model of CIPN, while ensuring that nicotine will not stimulate lung tumor cell proliferation or interfere with the anti-tumor properties of paclitaxel...

The inhibitory activity of coronaridine congeners on human (h) α4β2 and α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) is determined by Ca(2+) influx assays, whereas their effects on neurons in the ventral inferior (VI) aspect of the mouse medial habenula (MHb) are determined by patch-clamp recordings. The Ca(2+) influx results clearly establish that coronaridine congeners inhibit hα3β4 AChRs with higher selectivity compared to hα4β2 and hα7 subtypes, and with the following potency sequence, for hα4β2: (±)-18-methoxycoronaridine [(±)-18-MC]>(+)-catharanthine>(±)-18-methylaminocoronaridine [(±)-18-MAC] ∼ (±)-18-hydroxycoronaridine [(±)-18-HC]; and for hα7: (+)-catharanthine>(±)-18-MC>(±)-18-HC>(±)-18-MAC...

Schizophrenia may develop from disruptions in functional connectivity regulated by neurotransmitters such as dopamine and acetylcholine. The modulatory effects of these neurotransmitters might explain how antipsychotics attenuate symptoms of schizophrenia and account for the variable response to antipsychotics observed in clinical practice. Based on the putative mechanisms of antipsychotics and evidence of disrupted connectivity in schizophrenia, we hypothesised that functional network connectivity, as assessed using network-based statistics, would exhibit differences between treatment response subtypes of schizophrenia and healthy controls...

STUDY QUESTION: How do nano-vesicles extruded from normal first trimester human placentae affect maternal vascular function? SUMMARY ANSWER: Placental nano-vesicles affect the ability of systemic mesenteric arteries to undergo endothelium- and nitric oxide- (NO-) dependent vasodilation in vivo in pregnant mice. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Dramatic cardiovascular adaptations occur during human pregnancy, including a substantial decrease in total peripheral resistance in the first trimester...

The majority of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), an organ-specific autoimmune disease, harbor autoantibodies that attack the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR-Abs) at the neuromuscular junction of skeletal muscles, resulting in muscle weakness. Single cell manipulation technologies coupled with genetic engineering are very powerful tools to examine T cell and B cell repertoires and the dynamics of adaptive immunity. These tools have been utilized to develop mAbs in parallel with hybridomas, phage display technologies and B-cell immortalization...

Nicotine can stimulate the progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) through nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). The persistent proliferation of cancer cells is one of the key effects of nicotinic signaling. The present study aimed to clarify the mechanism of nicotine-induced proliferation in NSCLCs at the receptor subtype level. We have previously reported that there are various subtypes of nicotinic receptors expressed in NSCLC cell lines. In the present study, we demonstrated that blocking α7nAChRs agonized by nicotine could suppress the proliferation of H1299 cells in vitro and decrease H1299 tumor xenograft growth in nude mice...

In nature, proteins have evolved sophisticated cavities tailored for capturing target guests selectively among competitors of similar size, shape, and charge. The fundamental principles guiding the molecular recognition, such as self-assembly and complementarity, have inspired the development of biomimetic receptors. In the current work, we report a self-assembled triple anion helicate (host 2) featuring a cavity resembling that of the choline-binding protein ChoX, as revealed by crystal and density functional theory (DFT)-optimized structures, which binds choline in a unique dual-site-binding mode...

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt (DOCA-salt) hypertension and chronic treatment with the fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitor, URB597, on small and intermediate conductance calcium-activated potassium channels and endothelium-dependent hyperpolarization (KCa2.3/KCa3.1-EDH) in rat small mesenteric arteries (sMAs). The EDH-type response was investigated, in endothelium-intact sMAs using a wire myograph, by examining acetylcholine-evoked vasorelaxation in the presence of N(ω)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester and indomethacin (inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase, respectively)...

The intricate balance between dopaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmission in the striatum has been thoroughly difficult to characterize. It was initially described as a seesaw with a competing function of dopamine versus acetylcholine. Recent technical advances however, have brought this view into question suggesting that the two systems work rather in concert with the cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) driving dopamine release. In this study, we have utilized two transgenic Cre-driver rat lines, a choline acetyl transferase ChAT-Cre transgenic rat and a novel double-transgenic tyrosine hydroxylase TH-Cre/ChAT-Cre rat to further elucidate the role of striatal ChIs in normal motor function and in Parkinson's disease...

Muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) mutations can lead to altered channel kinetics and neuromuscular junction degeneration, a neurodegenerative disorder collectively known as slow-channel congenital myasthenic syndrome (SCCMS). A multivariate analysis using running wheels was used to generate activity profiles for a variety of SCCMS models, uncovering unique locomotor patterns for the different nAChR mutants. Particularly, the αL251T and ɛL269F mutations exhibit decreased event distance, duration, and velocity over a period of 24 hours...

Objective: To investigate effects of mandible advanced device (MAD) therapy for obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) on the neuron apoptosis and acetylcholine esterase activity in frontal cortex. Materials and methods: Thirty male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10 in each group): group OSAHS, group MAD, and control group. Hydrophilic polyacrylamide gel was injected into soft palate of the animals to induce OSAHS in group OSAHS and group MAD...

The role of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) in the regulation of cholinergic neurotransmission has not been fully elucidated. Here we sought to develop a tool for studying vesicular acetylcholine transporter function, and we present data on the validation of our new anti-VAChT antibody. We show that the immunoreactivity of the antibody is not due to an artifact of secondary antibody staining, and we present two additional validation data. First, the peptide epitope used to generate the antibody is able to block the binding of the anti-VAChT antibody in vivo...