fibrates, as hypolipidemic drugs known as agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, diminish inflammatory responses. studies have shown that incorporation of a silicon atom into a drug structure improves its pharmacological potency, modifies its selectivity toward a given target, or changes its metabolic rate, in addition to increasing the lipophilicity of the compounds. a silico...

Cannabis derivatives have become the most widely used illicit substances in developed countries, and constitute a major health concern. The psychoactive compounds contained in cannabis induce their pharmacological effects by the activation of at least two different receptors, CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. Multiple studies have demonstrated the specific involvement of CB1 cannabinoid recept...

Rapid and reflexive responses to threats are present across phylogeny. The neural circuitry mediating reflexive defense reactions has been well-characterized in a variety of species, for example, in rodents and cats, the detection of and species-typical response to threats is mediated by a network of structures including the midbrain tectum (deep and intermediate layers of the superior collicul...

ADP mediates platelet-induced relaxation of blood vessels and may function as an important intercellular signaling molecule in the brain. We used pharmacological and genetic approaches to examine mechanisms that mediate responses of cerebral arterioles to ADP, including the role of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). We examined responses of cerebral arterioles (control diameter approxima...

Primary afferent somatosensory neurons mediate our sense of touch in response to changes in ambient pressure. Molecules that detect and transduce thermal stimuli have been recently identified, but mechanisms underlying mechanosensation, particularly in vertebrate organisms, remain enigmatic. Traditionally, mechanically evoked responses in somatosensory neurons have been assessed one cell at a t...

Inflammatory processes have been shown to be involved in development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) involves in various cellular processes including autophagy, apoptosis and energy metabolism. Recently, studies have been shown an association between mTOR pathway and inflammation, supporting the role of the pathway in the pathogenesis of infla...

BACKGROUND Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is recognized as an emerging cause of persistent diarrhea and enteric disease worldwide. Mucosal immunity towards EAEC infections is incompletely understood due in part to the lack of appropriate animal models. This study presents a new mouse model and investigates the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) in the mo...

The vascular response to pregnancy has been frequently studied in mesenteric artery models by investigating endothelial cell (EC)- and smooth muscle cell (SMC)-dependent responses to mechanical (flow-mediated vasodilation, myogenic reactivity, and vascular compliance) and pharmacological stimuli (G protein-coupled receptor responses: Gq(EC), Gs(SMC), Gq(SMC)). It is unclear to what extent these...

Catecholamines, either endogenous hormones or a variety of exogenous synthetic pharmacological agents, bind to adrenoceptors to mediate their ultimate clinical effects [21]. Since adrenoceptors mediate many cardiovascular responses, pharmacological stimulation and inhibition of adrenoceptors may be useful to the anaesthetist. Ahlquist described originally two adrenoceptor subtypes (alpha and be...

Advances in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology have set the stage for routine derivation of patient- and disease-specific human iPSC-cardiomyocyte (CM) models for preclinical drug screening and personalized medicine approaches. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are an advantageous source of somatic cells because they are easily obtained and readily amenable to transduction...