Although nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in both the central and peripheral nervous systems play a prominent role in the control of urinary bladder function, little is known regarding expression or function of nicotinic receptors in the bladder epithelium, or urothelium. Nicotinic receptors have been described in epithelial cells lining the upper gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, and...

It has now been definitely established that there exists an interchangeability of nicotinic acid and tryptophan in the nutrition of some animals on diets deficient in the vitamin and containing only suboptimal amounts of the amino acid (1-S). Because the dog has been employed as the experimental animal in the classical investigations on nicotinic acid deficiency, it seemed of interest to determ...

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are pentameric ligand-gated ion channels, which are involved in a wide range of neuronal functions. During the past decade, a large number of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits have been cloned and showed a discreet yet overlapping distribution pattern. Recently, several groups have produced mutant mice lacking specific nicotinic acetylcholine receptor s...

This paper will focus on the use of nicotinic acid as a therapeutic option for cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with abnormal glucose metabolism and ‘atherogenic dyslipidaemia’. This is characterised by low levels of HDL-C, high triglycerides, and preponderance of small, dense LDL particles. Whilst nicotinic acid may increase plasma glucose in some patients, more recent studies show th...

The use of nicotinic acid derivatives in the field of medicinal, biomedical industries, production of cosmetics, pesticides, agro chemical industries and its biological activities have been studied extensively over the past decades. In this chapter, one of such nicotinic acid derivative called Nicotinic Acid Ethyl Ester (also known ethyl nicotinate, Ethyl 3-pyridinecarboxylate and 3-pyridinecar...

Attention depends on cholinergic stimulation of nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex. Pyramidal neurons in layer VI of this region express cholinergic receptors of both families and play an important role in attention through their feedback projections to the thalamus. Here, we investigate how nicotinic and muscarinic cholinergic receptors affect the ...

Nicotinic acid has been used clinically for over 40 years in the treatment of dyslipidemia producing a desirable normalization of a range of cardiovascular risk factors, including a marked elevation of high density lipoprotein and a reduction in mortality. The precise mechanism of action of nicotinic acid is unknown, although it is believed that activation of a G(i)-G protein-coupled receptor m...

Activation of cortical nicotinic receptors by cholinergic axons from the basal forebrain (BF) significantly impacts cortical function, and the loss of nicotinic receptors is a hallmark of aging and neurodegenerative disease. We have previously shown that stimulation of BF axons generates a fast α7 and a slow non-α7 receptor-dependent response in cortical interneurons. However, the synaptic mech...

The recent discovery of the G(i) protein-coupled receptor GPR109A (HM74A in humans; PUMA-G in mice) as a receptor for nicotinic acid has provided the opportunity to gain greater understanding of the underlying biology contributing to the clinical efficacy (increases in HDL, decreases in VLDL, LDL, and triglycerides) and the characteristic side-effect profile of nicotinic acid. GPR109A has been ...

Cholinergic human brain currents were recorded in Xenopus laevis oocytes transplanted with human cerebral membranes from two different zones, the frontal cortex and the hippocampus. The recorded currents were supported by the nicotinic or the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor. We tested the effects of a number of several nicotinic agonists acetylcholine, nicotine and 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenylpipera...