adenosine acts as neuromodulator in the brain, which its involvement in a wide range of brain processes and diseases has been studied, such as epilepsy, sleep, anxiety, panic disorder, alzheimer’s disease, parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. adenosine receptors have been detected: a1r, a2ar (a2ar), a2br, and a3r. a1r and a2r inhibit camp production, while a2ar and a2br stimulate camp product...

Our earlier study showed that damage to brain dopaminergic pathways causes decreases in CYP2B, CYP2C11 and CYP3A, as well as increases in CYP1A protein levels and activities in the liver. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of lesions of brain dopaminergic pathways on hormones and cytokines that are thought to mediate the effect of the dopaminergic system on liver CYP ...

Mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons are thought to serve as a final common neural pathway for mediating reinforcement processes. However, several recent findings have challenged the view that mesolimbic dopamine has a crucial role in the maintenance of reinforcement processes, or the subjective rewarding actions of natural rewards and drugs of abuse. Instead, there is growing evidence that dopamine...

Since the time of Darwin, biologists have wondered whether birdsong and music may serve similar purposes or have the same evolutionary precursors. Most attempts to compare song with music have focused on the qualities of the sounds themselves, such as melody and rhythm. Song is a signal, however, and as such its meaning is tied inextricably to the response of the receiver. Imaging studies in hu...

UNLABELLED Pain management in opioid abusers engenders ethical and practical difficulties for clinicians, often resulting in pain mismanagement. Although chronic opioid administration may alter pain states, the presence of pain itself may alter the propensity to self-administer opioids, and previous history of drug abuse comorbid with chronic pain promotes higher rates of opioid misuse. Here, w...

Subtype-selective antagonists of the peripheral-type (CCK-A) and the central-type (CCK-B) cholecystokinin (CCK) receptors were employed to determine the receptor subtype(s) mediating the modulatory actions of CCK on dopamine-induced changes in exploratory activity at three sites in the mesolimbic pathway of the rat. The CCK-A antagonist L-364,718 (10 ng) blocked CCK potentiation of dopamine-ind...

Dopamine (DA) regulates emotional and motivational behavior through the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. Changes in DA mesolimbic neurotransmission have been found to modify behavioral responses to various environmental stimuli associated with reward behaviors. Psychostimulants, drugs of abuse, and natural reward such as food can cause substantial synaptic modifications to the mesolimbic DA sys...

The development of successful pharmacotherapeutics for the treatment of alcoholism is predicated upon understanding the biological action of alcohol. A limitation of the alcohol research field has been examining the effects of alcohol only and ignoring the multiple biological active metabolites of alcohol. The concept that alcohol is a "pro-drug" is not new. Alcohol is readily metabolized to ac...