Abstract Sleep and arousal are both important for animals. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) has long been found to promote sleep in mammals, an apparent paradox which also exist flies, causing much confusion understanding arousal. Here, we have systematically studied all 13 ACh receptors (AChRs) Drosophila understand mechanisms underlying function We that exogenous stimuli-induced was d...

Abstract At the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), postsynaptic ionotropic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) transduce a chemical signal released from cholinergic motor neuron into an electrical to induce muscle contraction. To identify regulators of function, we conducted genome-wide RNAi screen for genes required proper response levamisole, pharmacological agonist L-AChRs at Caenorhabditis elegans N...

Acetylcholine-binding protein is a water-soluble homologue of the extracellular ligand-binding domain of cys-loop receptors. It is used as a structurally accessible prototype for studying ligand binding to these pharmaceutically important pentameric ion channels, in particular to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, due to conserved binding site residues present at the interface between two subun...

Acetylcholine causes endothelium-dependent relaxations in the rat aorta. Both muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are expressed in endothelial cells. It is generally accepted that mAChRs are responsible for the endothelium-dependent relaxations evoked by acetylcholine. The present study was designed to investigate whether nAChRs can also be...

Neuropathic pain affects about 7–8% of the population, and its management still poses challenges with unmet needs. Over past decades, researchers have explored cholinergic system (muscarinic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: mAChR nAChR) compounds targeting these receptors as potential analgesics for neuropathic management. This scoping review aims to provide an overview studies on peripheral ...

Previous work from our laboratory indicates that bile acids, specifically lithocholic acid conjugates, interact with muscarinic receptors on gastric chief cells. Structural similarities between acetylcholine and lithocholyltaurine suggest a potential molecular basis for their interaction with the same receptor. We synthesized a hybrid molecule consisting of the steroid nucleus of lithocholyltau...

schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric illness with a lifetime prevalence of ˜1% that imposes a huge toll on patients, their families and public health services worldwide. delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior and negative symptoms constitute the core symptoms of schizophrenia. although the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a prominent role in t...

Nicotinergic agents can act as both chemokines and chemoattractants for cell migration. Epidermal keratinocytes both synthesize acetylcholine and use it as a paracrine and autocrine regulator of cell motility. To gain a mechanistic insight into nicotinergic control of keratinocyte motility, we determined types of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and signaling pathways regulating keratinocyte c...

Acetylcholine is an important neurotransmitter, and the habenulo-interpeduncular projection is a major cholinergic pathway in the brain. To study the physiological properties of cholinergic transmission in the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), we used a transgenic mouse line in which the light-gated cation channel ChannelRhodopsin-2 is selectively expressed in cholinergic neurons. Cholinergic axon...

Cholinergic interneurons (CHIs) play a major role in motor and learning functions of the striatum. As acetylcholine does not directly evoke postsynaptic events at most striatal synapses, it remains unclear how postsynaptic cholinergic receptors encode the firing patterns of CHIs in the striatum. To examine the dynamics of acetylcholine release, we used optogenetics and paired recordings from CH...