The endogenous inhibitory role of the neuropeptide galanin in pain transmission and spinal cord excitability was demonstrated by the use of a high-affinity galanin receptor antagonist, M-35 [galanin-(1-13)-bradykinin-(2-9)-amide]. M-35, which displaced 125I-labeled galanin from membranes of rat dorsal spinal cord with an IC50 of 0.3 nM, dose-dependently antagonized the effect of intrathecal gal...

Expression of the neuropeptide galanin is known to be upregulated in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). We and others have shown that galanin plays a neuroprotective role in a number of excitotoxic injury paradigms, mediated by activation of the second galanin receptor subtype (GAL2). In the present study, we investigated whether galanin/GAL2 plays a similar protective role ag...

The search for antiepileptic drugs that are capable of blocking the progression of epilepsy (epileptogenesis) is an important problem of translational epilepsy research. The neuropeptide galanin effectively suppresses acute seizures. We examined the ability of hippocampal galanin receptor type 1 (GalR1) and type 2 (GalR2) to inhibit kindling epileptogenesis and studied signaling cascades that m...

The nociceptive response latencies were increased significantly after intra-periaqueductal grey (PAG) administration of 1.0 or 3.0 nmol of galanin, but not 0.3 nmol, in rats. The effect of galanin was attenuated by following injection of 5.5 nmol of naloxone into PAG. These results indicate an anti-nociceptive role of galanin, and a possible interaction between galanin and opioid peptides in PA...

Ethanol intake stimulates expression of galanin in several hypothalamic sites, including the paraventricular nucleus. Because injection of galanin in the paraventricular nucleus induces eating, we hypothesized that galanin might also affect ethanol intake. Rats were given ad libitum access to 4% ethanol for 4 weeks and assigned to one of two groups according to levels of ethanol consumption: hi...

Sarnelli, Giovanni, Pieter Vanden Berghe, Petra Raeymaekers, Jozef Janssens, and Jan Tack. Inhibitory effects of galanin on evoked [Ca ]i responses in cultured myenteric neurons. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 286: G1009–G1014, 2004. First published January 22, 2004; 10.1152/ajpgi.00255.2003.—Galanin modulates gastrointestinal motility by inhibiting the release of ACh from enteric neur...

Galanin, a newly discovered peptide isolated from porcine intestine, is known to cause contraction in rat smooth muscle preparations and to induce hyperglycaemia in dogs. By the use of radioimmunoassay and immunohistochemical techniques the concentration and distribution of galanin immunoreactivity were determined in several areas of the respiratory tract of five dogs, five guinea pigs, five ra...

Galanin, a 29-amino-acid neuropeptide, is generally viewed as an inhibitory neuromodulator in a variety of central systems. Galanin expression is upregulated in the cholinergic basal forebrain nuclei in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is postulated to play an important role in memory and cognitive function. In this study, application of galanin to acutely dissociated rat neurons from the basal for...

In the rat, the secretion of GH is episodic and sexually dimorphic. The development and regulation of this patterning of GH secretion are governed by the reciprocal influence of the hypothalamic peptide somatostatin and GH-releasing hormone (GHRH). Galanin is a neuropeptide that is colocalized with GHRH in hypothalamic neurons and is thought to be involved in generating the episodic pattern of ...

Galanin is a neuropeptide with aminoacid length ranging from 29 to 31 is widely distributed in central and peripheral nervous system. Galanin controls various psychological processes such as sensation of pain, learning, feeding, and sexual behaviour. The N-terminal region of this neuropeptide has highly conserved 15 amino acids, which is triggered by galanin receptors. We performed evolutionary...