Nicotine activation of alpha4* receptors: sufficient for reward, tolerance, and sensitization

The identity of nicotinic receptor subtypes sufficient to elicit both the acute and chronic effects of nicotine dependence is unknown. We engineered mutant mice with a4 nicotinic subunits containing a single point mutation, Leu9' --> Ala9' in the pore-forming M2 domain, rendering a4* receptors hypersensitive to nicotine. Selective activation of a4* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with low doses of agonist recapitulates nicotine effects thought to be important in dependence, including reinforcement in response to acute nicotine administration, as well as tolerance and sensitization elicited by chronic nicotine administration. These data indicate that activation of a4* receptors is sufficient for nicotine-induced reward, tolerance, and sensitization.     

Nicotine decreases food intake through activation of POMC neurons

Smoking decreases appetite, and smokers often report that they smoke to control their weight. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the anorexic effects of smoking would facilitate the development of novel treatments to help with smoking cessation and to prevent or treat obesity. By using a combination of pharmacological, molecular genetic, electrophysiological, and feeding studies, we found that activation of hypothalamic α3β4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors leads to activation of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons. POMC neurons and subsequent activation of melanocortin 4 receptors were critical for nicotinic-induced decreases in food intake in mice. This study demonstrates that nicotine decreases food intake and body weight by influencing the hypothalamic melanocortin system and identifies critical molecular and synaptic mechanisms involved in nicotine-induced decreases in appetite.     

Molecular cloning and functional expression of glutamate receptor subunit genes

Three closely related genes, GluR1, GluR2, and GluR3, encode receptor subunits for the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. The proteins encoded by the individual genes form homomeric ion channels in Xenopus oocytes that are sensitive to glutamatergic agonists such as kainate and quisqualate but not to N-methyl-D-aspartate, indicating that binding sites for kainate and quisqualate exist on single receptor polypeptides. In addition, kainate-evoked conductances are potentiated in oocytes expressing two or more of the cloned receptor subunits. Electrophysiological responses obtained with certain subunit combinations show agonist profiles and current-voltage relations that are similar to those obtained in vivo. Finally, in situ hybridization histochemistry reveals that these genes are transcribed in shared neuroanatomical loci. Thus, as with gamma-aminobutyric acid, glycine, and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, native kainate-quisqualate-sensitive glutamate receptors form a family of heteromeric proteins.     

Anticholinesterase-induced amnesia and its temporal aspects

Injection of the anticholinesterase drug diisopropyl fluorophosphate into the hippocampi of rats, 30 minutes after escape learning, produces partial amnesia with full recovery 5 days after injection. No such amnesia is produced if the injection takes place 3 days after learning. However, with injections 5 days after learning there is again an effect, and at 14 days amnesia is complete though no normal forgetting occurs within this period.     

Brain dopamine and serotonin receptor sites revealed by digital subtraction autoradiography

Autoradiography combined with image analysis permitted quantitative visualization of dopamine (D2) and serotonin (S2) binding sites in rat brain. Forebrain sections were incubated with tritiated spiroperidol alone or with tritiated spiroperidol plus unlabeled compounds that saturated the D2 or S2 sites. By subtracting the digitized image of an autoradiograph derived from the latter sections from that of the former, the D2 or S2 sites were specifically revealed. The resulting quantitative images demonstrate the differing anatomical distributions of these sites. The D2 site is largely restricted to the striatal complex (caudate-putamen, nucleus accumbens septi, and olfactory tubercle), whereas the S2 site is enriched in layer 5 of motor cortex, the perirhinal and cingulate cortices, and the claustrum.     

Amnesia or reversal of forgetting by anticholinesterase, depending simply on time of injection

The effect of intracerebral injections of the anticholinesterase drug diisopropyl fluorophosphate in rats was to produce good recall of an otherwise almost forgotten habit learned 28 days before. The same injections produced temporary amnesia for the same habit, otherwise well remembered, learned 14 days before. The injections had no ef fect on the memory of the same habit when it was only partly learned 14 days before. The results support the hy pothesis that the physiological basis of memory lies in an increase, and for getting in a decrease, in synaptic con ductance.     

Loss of M2 muscarine receptors in the cerebral cortex in Alzheimer's disease and experimental cholinergic denervation

Cerebral cortex samples from patients with Alzheimer's disease and from rats after experimental cholinergic denervation of the cerebral cortex exhibited reductions in the presynaptic marker choline acetyltransferase activity and in the number of M2 muscarine receptors, with no change in the number of M1 receptors. These results are in keeping with evidence that M2 receptors function in cholinergic nerve terminals to regulate the release of acetylcholine, whereas M1 receptors are located on postsynaptic cells and facilitate cellular excitation. New M1-selective agonists and M2-selective antagonists directed at post- or presynaptic sites deserve consideration as potential agents for the treatment of the disease.     

Alterations in L-glutamate binding in Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases

Brain sections from patients who had died with senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type (SDAT), Huntington's disease (HD), or no neurologic disease were studied by autoradiography to measure sodium-independent L-[3H]glutamate binding. In brain sections from SDAT patients, glutamate binding was normal in the caudate, putamen, and claustrum but was lower than normal in the cortex. The decreased cortical binding represented a reduction in numbers of binding sites, not a change in binding affinity, and appeared to be the result of a specific decrease in numbers of the low-affinity quisqualate binding site. No significant changes in cortical binding of other ligands were observed. In brains from Huntington's disease patients, glutamate binding was lower in the caudate and putamen than in the same regions of brains from control and SDAT patients but was normal in the cortex. It is possible that development of positron-emitting probes for glutamate receptors may permit diagnosis of SDAT in vivo by means of positron emission tomographic scanning.     

Reduced numbers of somatostatin receptors in the cerebral cortex in Alzheimer's disease

Somatostatin receptor concentrations were measured in patients with Alzheimer's disease and controls. In the frontal cortex (Brodmann areas 6, 9, and 10) and temporal cortex (Brodmann area 21), the concentrations of somatostatin in receptors in the patients were reduced to approximately 50 percent of control values. A 40 percent reduction was seen in the hippocampus, while no significant changes were found in the cingulate cortex, postcentral gyrus, temporal pole, and superior temporal gyrus. Scatchard analysis showed a reduction in receptor number rather than a change in affinity. Somatostatin-like immunoreactivity was significantly reduced in both the frontal and temporal cortex. Somatostatin-like immunoreactivity was linearly related to somatostatin-receptor binding in the cortices of Alzheimer's patients. These findings may reflect degeneration of postsynaptic neurons or cortical afferents in the patients' cerebral cortices. Alternatively, decreased somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in Alzheimer's disease might indicate increased release of somatostatin and down regulation of postsynaptic receptors.     

遮阴对烤烟烟碱合成调控的影响

为探究遮阴处理对烤烟各生育期次生代谢的影响,在大田条件下,测定和分析了不同遮阴程度下烤烟烟碱、烟碱前体、中间物质含量及烟碱合成酶基因相对表达量.结果 表明:遮阴15～55 d,根部烟碱含量随生育期推进呈现先升高、后降低、再升高、最后降低的趋势,即呈双峰曲线;遮阴25～65 d,与对照相比,中重度遮阴处理显著增加多胺含量...     

α-芋螺毒素与烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体作用的药理学

芋螺毒素(CTX)来源于芋螺毒管分泌的毒液,是一类分子质量小、结构新颖、作用靶点广泛且特异性高的活性多肽,具有开发成为药物或药物先导化合物的价值。芋螺毒素按其作用靶点不同等特点可以分为多个家族,其中α-芋螺毒素家族(α-CTXs)的半胱氨酸模式为:CC-C-C。根据α-CTXs半胱氨酸残基间的氨基酸数目进一步分为不同的亚家族。α-CTXs是肌肉或神经型烟碱乙酰胆碱受体的选择性拮抗剂,具有重要临床意义的乙酰胆碱受体(nAChRs)与神经痛、帕金森病、痴呆、学习记忆障碍以及小细胞肺癌等多种疾病的发病、诊断和治疗密切相关。笔者详述了α-芋螺毒素与烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体的结构、分类及其相互间的作用关系,旨在为该类药物的开发利用提供参考依据。     

An estrogen-binding protein and endogenous ligand in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: possible hormone receptor system

A protein macromolecule in the cytosol of the unicellular eukaryotic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae selectively binds the vertebrate estrogen hormone 17 beta-estradiol with high affinity. Lipid extracts of the yeast cells or the conditioned growth medium yield a substance that can bind competitively to the tritiated estradiol-binding sites in the yeast and to mammalian estrogen receptors. These findings suggest that the binding protein may be a primitive hormone receptor and that the lipid-extractable substance represents the endogenous ligand.     

Retrograde amnesia produced by intraperitoneal injection of physostigmine

Intraperitoneal injection of physostigmine in rats produced a retrograde amnesia of a trained task of escaping shock. This amnesic effect was a U-shaped function of the length of the interval between initial training and injection. In all cases, retraining Occurred 30 minutes after injection. A substantial effect was produced by physostigmine if its application was made 30 minutes after training; there was no effect if application and tests were made 1, 2, or 3 days after the original training. When the substance was injected and the rats were retrained 5, 7, or 14 days after the original training, a substantial effect again appeared. These results are similar to those reported in experiments in which another anticholinesterase, diisopropyl fluorophosphate, was applied intracerebrally. The data demonstrate a similar pattern of change of the amnesia with time, and they substantiate the view that neither the place of application nor the brain lesions caused the reported amnesia.     

Nicotinic antagonists enhance process outgrowth by rat retinal ganglion cells in culture

Functional nicotinic cholinergic receptors are found on mammalian retinal ganglion cell neurons in culture. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) can be detected in the medium of many of these retinal cultures, after release presumably from the choline acetyltransferase-positive amacrine cells. The postsynaptic effect of endogenous or applied ACh on the ganglion cells can be blocked with specific nicotinic antagonists. Here it is shown that within 24 hours of producing such a pharmacologic blockade, the retinal ganglion cells begin to sprout or regenerate neuronal processes. Thus, the growth-enhancing effect of nicotinic antagonists may be due to the removal of inhibition to growth by tonic levels of ACh present in the culture medium. Since there is a spontaneous leak of ACh in the intact retina, the effects of nicotinic cholinergic drugs on process outgrowth in culture may reflect a normal control mechanism for growth or regeneration of retinal ganglion cell processes that is exerted by ACh in vivo.     

Brain norepinephrine: enhanced turnover after rubidium treatment

After biosynthesis of norepinephrine was inhibited, treatment of rats for 10 days with rubidium chloride (0.6 milliequivalent per kilogram of body weight) caused an increase in the rate of disappearance of norepinephrine in the brainstem but not in the telencephalon. Also the utilization of intracisternally injected tritiated norepinephrine was increased and was accompanied by a shift in the pattern of norepinephrine metabolism to normetanephrine. These data suggest that greater amounts of neuronally stored norepinephrine were released to central adrenergic receptors.     

Mapping the main immunogenic region and toxin-binding site of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

The alpha-chain of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor carries the binding sites both for cholinergic ligands and for most experimentally induced or naturally occurring antibodies to the native receptor. By means of expression cloning in Escherichia coli, fusion proteins were derived from specific fragments of a complementary DNA encoding the mouse alpha-chain, allowing the mapping of the toxin-binding site to residues 160-216 and the main immunogenic region to residues 6-85. This approach permits the independent study of different functional domains of a complex receptor molecule and should be generally applicable to other proteins for which complementary DNA clones are available.     

Transmitter sensitivity of neurons assayed by autoradiography

Ionic conductance channels that are opened by activating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors at synapses of sympathetic neurons are permeable to small organic amines. Uptake of a tritium-labeled amine through these channels can be measured by autoradiography. This provides a simple and direct way to assess the sensitivity of individual neurons to acetylcholine without using microelectrodes.     

Stereospecific effects of inhalational general anesthetic optical isomers on nerve ion channels

Although it is generally agreed that general anesthetics ultimately act on neuronal ion channels, there is considerable controversy over whether this occurs by direct binding to protein or secondarily by nonspecific perturbation of lipids. Very pure optical isomers of the inhalational general anesthetic isoflurane exhibited clear stereoselectivity in their effects on particularly sensitive ion channels in identified molluscan central nervous system neurons. At the human median effect dose (ED50) for general anesthesia, the (+)-isomer was about twofold more effective than the (-)-isomer both in eliciting the anesthetic-activated potassium current IK(An) and in inhibiting a current mediated by neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. For inhibiting the much less sensitive transient potassium current IA, the (-)-isomer was marginally more potent than the (+)-isomer. Both isomers were equally effective at disrupting lipid bilayers.     

烟叶钾含量与烟株农艺性状和烟碱含量的相关分析

中国北方烟区土壤的普遍缺钾是影响中国烟草生产的一个重要原因。这种缺钾的土壤特性在短时间内很难得到较大的改善。利用不同基因型的烟草品种对钾素利用效率的不同选育钾高效品种是解决这一问题的一个有效途径。寻找与钾素利用效率相关的农艺性状,从农艺性状的表现选育钾素高利用效率的烟草品种能够大大加快选育的进程。此项研究对7个亲本材料的烟叶运用盐酸浸提火焰光度法测定了钾含量。对19个基因型材料调查株高、茎围、节距、单株叶数、最大叶的叶长和叶宽等农艺性状,取各基因型平均值进行与烟叶钾含量性状的相关分析。发现除了最大叶宽与烟叶钾含量呈负相关外,株高、茎围、节距、叶数和最大叶长与烟叶钾含量均呈正相关关系。其中株高、茎围与烟叶钾含量之间的相关性达到了显著,最大叶长与烟叶钾含量的相关性达到了极显著水平。以C731为材料,运用盐酸提取紫外分光光度法测定烟碱含量,发现中、上部叶随着叶龄的增大,烟碱含量逐渐增加,在叶龄的第75d,烟碱含量达到最大值,随后呈现减少趋势;而烟叶钾含量随着叶龄的增大在不断降低。绝对钾含量由于受到干物质积累的影响,变化略有不同,但是总体上仍然是减少的。对于下部叶,烟碱含量在叶龄的第60d增加到最大值,随后呈现减小趋势,烟叶钾含量也随着叶龄的增大在不断地减少。上、中、下三个部位的烟碱与烟叶钾含量均呈负相关关系。其中,中部叶烟碱与相对钾含量(%)和绝对钾含量(g)显著相关,并且与相对钾含量的相关程度也很高(r=-0.7126)。这说明在烟叶的全生育期内,烟叶钾含量增加时,烟碱含量是减少的。因此,提高烟叶钾含量有助于降低烟碱进而改善烟叶品质,尤其对于中、上部叶来说是很有效的。     

NMDA receptor losses in putamen from patients with Huntington's disease

N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), phencyclidine (PCP), and quisqualate receptor binding were compared to benzodiazepine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and muscarinic cholinergic receptor binding in the putamen and cerebral cortex of individuals with Huntington's disease (HD). NMDA receptor binding was reduced by 93 percent in putamen from HD brains compared to binding in normal brains. Quisqualate and PCP receptor binding were reduced by 67 percent, and the binding to other receptors was reduced by 55 percent or less. Binding to these receptors in the cerebral cortex was unchanged in HD brains. The results support the hypothesis that NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxicity plays a role in the pathophysiology of Huntington's disease.