Apoptosis, a normal event in renal tissue homeostasis, has been considered as a major mechanism for either resolution of glomerular hypercellularity in glomerulonephritis or loss of cellularity and progression to glomerulosclerosis in chronic renal disease. This study was aimed at investigating the role of extracellular ATP (eATP) in mediating apoptosis in human mesangial cells (HMC) and identi...

A new class of Mannich bases 9-26, derivatives of 2-amino-1H-benzimidazole, were obtained in the condensation of Schiff bases 1-4 or 2-benzylaminobenzimidazoles 5-8 with selected secondary amines: morpholine, piperidine, N-methylpiperazine, N-phenylpiperazine, 1-(2-pyridyl)piperazine, 1(2-methoxyphenyl)piperazine, 1-(2-pyrimidinyl)piperazine and formaldehyde in ethanol. The pyrimido[1,2-albenzi...

Cerebral ischemia leads to neuronal death for stroke, in which the imbalance between glutamatergic neurons and GABAergic neurons toward neural excitotoxicity is presumably involved. GABAergic neurons are vulnerable to pathological factors and impaired in an early stage of ischemia. The rescue of GABAergic neurons is expected to be the strategy to reserve ischemic neuronal impairment. As protein...

WAY-100635 is widely used in vitro and in vivo as an antagonist of 5-HT 1A receptors [1]. In terms of pharmacological tools and pharmacological investigations, the ideal reference molecule would be highly selective for its target over other related and non-related targets. However WAY-100635 displays affinity for and activity at D 4 dopamine receptors, and that "off-target" activity confounds i...

Bacterial LPS induces the release of ATP from immune cells. Accruing evidence suggests that extracellular ATP participates in the inflammatory response as a proinflammatory mediator by activating the inflammasome complex, inducing secretion of cytokines (IL-1, IL-18) and cell damaging agents such as oxygen radicals, cationic proteins, and metalloproteases. It is not known whether ATP can also a...

Early diagnosis of liver fibrosis is important. The objective of this study was to explore the characteristics and to assess the accuracy of monoexponential, stretched exponential models (SEM), and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in various stages of liver fibrosis in two standard rat models induced by carbon tetrachloride ...

The ability of P2 antagonists to affect agonist-stimulated fluorescent dye accumulation in cells expressing human, rat, or mouse P2X(7) receptors was examined. Several compounds, including pyridoxalphosphate-6-azophenyl-2',4'-disulfonic acid (PPADS), which was previously thought to be a weak P2X(7) receptor antagonist, possessed high potency (nanomolar IC(50)) at human and rat P2X(7) receptors....

The LQFM05 is a prototype drug designed for treatment of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, exhibiting anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like (12 or 24 µmol/kg) effects in classical behavioral tests. In order to evaluate its pharmacokinetic properties, liquid chromatography method coupled quadrupole time flight mass spectrometry system (LC-QTOF/MS) was developed fully validated analysis...

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is characterized by stromal cell proliferation and contraction of the periurethral smooth muscle, causing lower urinary tract symptoms. Current BPH treatment, based on monotherapy with α1A-adrenoceptor antagonists, is helpful for many patients, but insufficient for others, and recent reports suggest that stimulation of α1D-adrenoceptors and 5-hydroxytryptamine...