BACKGROUND Inherited neurotransmitter disorders are primary defects of neurotransmitter metabolism. The main purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to identify prevalence of inherited neurotransmitter disorders. METHODS This retrospective cohort study does not have inclusion criteria; rather included all patients who underwent cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) homovanillic and 5-hydroxyindol ...

Among the many forms of brain plasticity, changes in synaptic strength and changes in synapse number are particularly prominent. However, evidence for neurotransmitter respecification or switching has been accumulating steadily, both in the developing nervous system and in the adult brain, with observations of transmitter addition, loss, or replacement of one transmitter with another. Natural s...

Since the discovery of the major excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters and their receptors in the brain, many have deliberated over their likely structures and how these may relate to function. This was initially satisfied by the determination of the first amino acid sequences of the Cys-loop receptors that recognized acetylcholine, serotonin, GABA, and glycine, followed later by similar ...

Chemical neurotransmission as a concept is generally attributed to Elliott 1 (1904) who emphasized the similarity between the action of adrenaline and sympathetic nerve stimulation. The experimental proof was not provided until 1921, however, by the classical experiments of Loewi 2 and by Cannon and Uridil 3. Loewi, working on frogs, correctly concluded that the active-principle in this case wa...

Evidence suggests that alcohol affects brain function by interacting with multiple neurotransmitter systems, thereby disrupting the delicate balance between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters. Short-term alcohol exposure tilts this balance in favor of inhibitory influences. After long-term alcohol exposure, however, the brain attempts to compensate by tilting the balance back toward eq...

Uptake of neurotransmitters involves multiple transporters acting in different brain locations under different physiological conditions. The vesicular transporters are driven by a proton-motive force generated by a V-ATPase and their substrates are taken up via proton/substrate exchange. The plasma membrane transporters are driven by an electrochemical gradient of sodium generated by a Na+/K(+)...

Ethanol has been shown to have both presynaptic and postsynaptic effects on synaptic transmission. However, the mechanisms by which ethanol affects evoked neurotransmitter release have not been studied at the mouse neuromuscular junction, a synapse at which binomial analysis of neurotransmitter release and measurements of prejunctional ionic currents can be made. Ethanol (400 mM) increased neur...

Sodium-coupled neurotransmitter transporters are located in the plasma membranes of neurons and glia, where they are present at high density in those areas of the cell membrane that face the synapse (Figure 1). They serve to keep the extracellular neurotransmitter concentrations sufficiently low, so that the postsynaptic receptors are able to detect signaling by the presynaptic nerve cell in th...

Neurotransmitter systems have been long recognized as important targets of the developmental actions of alcohol (i.e., ethanol). Short- and long-term effects of ethanol on amino acid (e.g., γ-aminobutyric acid and glutamate) and biogenic amine (e.g., serotonin and dopamine) neurotransmitters have been demonstrated in animal models of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Researchers have det...

Background: Although the history, interview, and examination of the patient provide the foundation for the diagnosis of schizophrenia, nuclear neuroimaging investigations constitute promising tools to elucidate the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Imaging studies of neuroreceptors constitute research tools to investigate the role of dysfunction of the acety...