The effect of early postnatal (day 8) intracerebroventricular injections of the putative cholinotoxin ethylcholine aziridinium mustard (AF64A) on development of cholinergic innervation and postsynaptic muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in the rat hippocampus was examined. The cholinotoxin applied at this stage of development leads to a permanent denervation of cholinergic fibres in the hippoca...

Degeneration of basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic neurons is one of the early pathological events in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is thought to be responsible for the cholinergic and cognitive deficits in AD. The functions of this group of neurons are highly influenced by glutamatergic inputs from neocortex. We found that activation of metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7) decreased NMDAR-m...

Nicotinic (cholinergic) neurotransmission plays a critical role in the vertebrate nervous system, underlies nicotine addiction, and nicotinic receptor dysfunction leads to neurological disorders. The C. elegans neuromuscular junction (NMJ) shares many characteristics with neuronal synapses, including multiple classes of postsynaptic currents. Here, we identify two genes required for the major e...

Three metabolites of N-[2-(1-azabicyclo[3.3.0]octan-5-yl)ethyl]-2-nitroaniline fumarate (SK-946), a novel central muscarinic cholinergic receptor agonist, were prepared to confirm their proposed structures, and tested for muscarinic receptor affinity in vitro.

Cellular and molecular processes that mediate individual variability in impulsivity, a key behavioral component of many neuropsychiatric disorders, are poorly understood. Zebrafish heterozygous for a nonsense mutation in ache (ache (sb55/+)) showed lower levels of impulsivity in a 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT) than wild type and ache(+∕+). Assessment of expression of cholinergic ...

Yan, Zhen, Wen-Jie Song, and D. James Surmeier. D2 dopamine dopamine (DA) (DeBoer et al. 1993; Di Chiara et al. 1994; receptors reduce N-type Ca currents in rat neostriatal cholinergic Lehman and Langer 1983; Stoof et al. 1982), it is unclear interneurons through a membrane-delimited, protein-kinase-C-insenhow this is accomplished. sitive pathway. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 1003–1015, 1997. Dopamine ...

The central cholinergic system regulates both the circadian clock and sleep-wake cycle and may participate in the feedback control of vigilance states on neural excitability in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that houses the circadian clock. Here we investigate the mechanisms for cholinergic modulation of SCN neuron excitability. Cell-attached recordings indicate that the nonspecific choliner...

Previous work from this laboratory has shown that the electrically evoked release of enkephalin from the guinea pig myenteric plexus is regulated by an opiate receptor-mediated, concentration-dependent mechanism. Low concentrations (nanomolar) of opioids enhance release, whereas higher concentrations (10-100 nM) inhibit release. Each opioid effect is mediated by a different guanine nucleotide-b...

Here we sought to determine whether ghrelin's central effects on food intake can be interrupted by nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) blockade. Ghrelin regulates mesolimbic dopamine neurons projecting from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens, partly via cholinergic VTA afferents originating in the laterodorsal tegmental area (LDTg). Given that these cholinergic projec...

In electrophysiological studies using the rat hippocampal slice preparation, cholinergic agonists and phorbol 12,13-diacetate, a stimulator of protein kinase C, block the inhibitory actions of baclofen, a gamma-aminobutyric acid B receptor agonist, and adenosine. Relative potencies of cholinergic agonists in stimulating the phosphatidylinositol system, as measured biochemically, parallel their ...