The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of muscarinic cholinergic receptor antagonists and agonists on prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex in rats. The muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine (0.03-1.0 mg/kg) produced a significant dose-dependent decrease in PPI without affecting startle amplitude. In contrast, N-methyl scopolamine, the quaternary a...

Experiments using muscarinic receptor antagonists were done to determine which muscarinic receptor subtypes(s) mediate carbachol-evoked calcium release in N1E-115 cells. McN-A-343 and a new analog, (+/-)BN228, were weak antagonists and neither compound caused release on its own. The rank order of potency was 4-DAMP greater than pirenzepine greater than AFDX116 greater than (+/-)BN228 and McN-A-...

Recent studies have described muscarinic receptors on the mucosa and the detrusor of the human urinary bladder. Muscarinic receptor antagonists are effective in the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB), but their site(s) of action and actual therapeutic target are unclear. Our aim was to compare, in human bladder mucosa and detrusor, the radioligand binding characteristics of newer, clinically...

Five subtypes of muscarinic receptors have been identified by pharmacological and molecular biological methods. The muscarinic receptor subtype mediating acid secretion at the level of the parietal cell was unknown. Therefore, this study was performed to characterize muscarinic receptors on rat gastric parietal cells using the 3 subtype-selective antagonists hexahydrosiladifenidol and silahexoc...

The roles of muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic receptors in perirhinal cortex in object recognition memory were compared. Rats' discrimination of a novel object preference test (NOP) test was measured after either systemic or local infusion into the perirhinal cortex of the nicotinic receptor antagonist methyllycaconitine (MLA), which targets alpha-7 (α7) amongst other nicotinic receptors or...

A comprehensive review of pharmacological and medical aspects of the muscarinic class of acetylcholine agonists and antagonists is presented. The therapeutic benefits of achieving receptor subtype selectivity are outlined and applications in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease are discussed. A selection of chemical routes are described, which illustrate contemporary methodology for the synthes...

Muscarinic cholinergic receptors modulate dopaminergic function in brain pathways thought to mediate cocaine's abuse-related effects. Here, we sought to confirm and extend in the mouse species findings that nonselective muscarinic receptor antagonists can enhance cocaine's discriminative stimulus. More importantly, we tested the hypothesis that muscarinic receptor agonists with varied receptor ...

Muscarinic cholinergic receptors modulate dopaminergic function in brain pathways thought to mediate cocaine’s abuse-related effects. Here we sought to confirm and extend in the mouse species findings that nonselective muscarinic receptor antagonists can enhance cocaine’s discriminative stimulus. More importantly, we tested the hypothesis that muscarinic receptor agonists with varied receptor s...

Five different muscarinic receptor subtypes can be distinguished by the differences in their amino acid sequence, the coupled signal transduction system, pharmacological binding properties and activation of ionic fluxes. The present study served to characterize the binding profile of muscarinic receptors in human colon carcinoma cells (HT-29) using selective muscarinic antagonists. The affiniti...