Malignancies such as lung, breast and pancreatic carcinomas are associated with increased expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR, its role in pathogenesis progression tumors has made this receptor a prime target development antitumor therapies. In therapies targeting resistance owing to mutations single nucleotide polymorphisms, ligands themselves very serious issues. work, bo...

introduction: the brain glutamate neurotransmitter system and its nmda receptors in the nucleus accumbens play an important role in the incidence of the phenomena of sensitivity and addiction. the present study examined the inhibitory effect of glutamate nmda receptors in the nucleus accumbens in response to chronic stress. methods: after the unilateral and bilateral cannula placement in the nu...

introduction: the magnocellular neurons (mcns) of the supraoptic nucleus (son) play a crucial role in control of physiological and pathophysiologiccal condition due to two peptides that they synthesize, i.e. oxytocin (oxt) and vasopressin (avp). the activity of mcns is regulated by a variety of excitatory and inhibitory inputs. opioid receptors are one of the important receptors in son synapses...

alzheimer’s disease (ad) is a uniquely human disorder. although the pathogenesis of ad is not fully understood, growing evidence indicates that the deposition of beta-amyloid (aβ) and the local reactions of various cell types to this protein play major roles in the development of the disease. in the present study transgenic mice expressing mutant amyloid precursor protein (app) has been used. t...

objective(s): opioids and cannabinoids are two important compounds that have been shown to influence the activity of magnocellular neurons (mcns) of supraoptic nucleus (son). the interaction between opioidergic and cannabinoidergic systems in various structures of the brain and spinal cord is now well established, but not in the mcns of son. materials and methods: in this study, whole cell patc...

in the present study, the effects of formalin as a peripheral noxious stimulus on spontaneously active units of the nucleus reticularis paragigantocellularis (pgi), a narrow region of the ventral pontine reticular formation, was examined in urethane anesthetized rats. spontaneous discharge of the pgi neurons was variable, ranging from i to 37 spikes per second. formalin as a chemical irritant a...

Beacon is a novel peptide isolated from the hypothalamus of Israeli sand rat. In the present study, we determined the distribution of beacon in the rat brain using immunohistochemical approach with a polyclonal antiserum directed against the synthetic C-terminal peptide fragment (47-73). The hypothalamus represented the major site of beacon-immunoreactive (IR) cell bodies that were concentrated...

Spinocerebellar ataxia type-3 or Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD) is a member of the CAG/polyglutamine repeat disease family. In this family of disorders, a normally polymorphic CAG repeat becomes expanded, resulting in expression of an expanded polyglutamine domain in the disease gene product. Experimental models of polyglutamine disease implicate the nucleus in pathogenesis; however, the lin...

objective: in the present study, we examined the effects of memantine administration within the nucleus accumbens on the alterations in brain and adrenal volumes and weight ratios induced by stress from electric foot shock. methods: a group of mice received various doses of memantine (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) prior to induction of stress. another group underwent intra-accumbal cannulation after an...

lthough the cellular adhesion molecule CD44 is involved in processes ranging from lymphocyte homing to tumor metastasis, it has remained unclear how CD44 transduces the intracellular signals required for such a broad range of activities. On page 755, Okamoto et al. propose a surprising mechanism for CD44 signal transduction: a cytoplasmic domain is cleaved from the protein, after which it trans...