The dopamine transporter (DAT) is an integral member of the dopaminergic system and responsible for release reuptake from synaptic space into neurons. DAT also major target amphetamine (Amph). effects Amph on have been intensively studied; however, mechanisms underlying long-term caused by embryonal exposure to addictive doses remain largely unexplored. As in mammals, nematode C. elegans causes...

P atients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer a specifi c loss of dop-aminergic neurons from the mid-brain region that controls motor function. The exact mechanism of this selective neurodegeneration is unclear, though many lines of evidence point to dysfunctional mitochondrial complex I as one root cause of the disease. Yet Choi et al. now suggest that defective regulation of micro-tubules ma...

The effects of wisanine and dihydrowisanine were studied on stereotyped and aggressive behaviour induced by apomorphine (0.5 mg/kg s.c.) in chicks. Pretreatment of chicks with wisanine (0.3-0.6 g/kg i.p.) and dihydrowisanine (0.2-0.4 g/kg i.p.) dose dependently antagonised fighting episodes and pecking of the chick's own feet and those of other chicks. It has been suggested that the antagonism ...

202 Introduction Dopamine systems have long been implicated in schizophrenia and its treatment. There is, however, little evidence for a primary abnormality of dopaminergic innervation in the disease, although subtle neuronal deficits, for which there is substantial evidence in the brain in schizophrenia, could conceivably affect dopaminergic neurotransmission in an indirect manner. However, do...

Meige's disease is a bizarre, often disabling movement disorder of the elderly characterised by symmetric dystonic contractions of the orofacial muscles; at times other midline muscles such as the tongue and the palatopharyngeal, respiratory, and neck muscles may be affected.' 2 Although the spasms are often thought to be psychogenic in origin, there exists no convincing evidence that they repr...

The expression of ectopic olfactory receptors (ORs) in melanized cells, such as the human brain nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and skin melanocytes, is here pointed out. ORs are recognized to regulate skin melanogenesis, whereas OR expression in the dopaminergic neurons, characterized by accumulation of pigment neuromelanin, is downregulated in Parkinson's disease. Furthermore, the correlat...

The classical dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia postulates a hyperactivity of dopaminergic transmission at the D(2) receptor. We measured in vivo occupancy of striatal D(2) receptors by dopamine in 18 untreated patients with schizophrenia and 18 matched controls, by comparing D(2) receptor availability before and during pharmacologically induced acute dopamine depletion. Acute depletion of i...