Scopolamine Administration Modulates Muscarinic, Nicotinic and NMDA Receptor Systems

Studies on the effect of scopolamine on memory are abundant but so far only regulation of the muscarinic receptor (M1) has been reported. We hypothesized that levels of other cholinergic brain receptors as the nicotinic receptors and the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, known to be involved in memory formation, would be modified by scopolamine administration

Molecular mechanism for 3:1 subunit stoichiometry of rod cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channels

Molecular determinants of ion channel tetramerization are well characterized, but those involved in heteromeric channel assembly are less clearly understood. The heteromeric composition of native channels is often precisely controlled. Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels from rod photoreceptors exhibit a 3:1 stoichiometry of CNGA1 and CNGB1 subunits that tunes the channels for their specialized role in phototransduction. Here we show, using electrophysiology, fluorescence, biochemistry, and X-ray crystallography, that the mechanism for this controlled assembly is the formation of a parallel 3-helix coiled-coil domain of the carboxy-terminal leucine zipper region of CNGA1 subunits, constraining the channel to contain three CNGA1 subunits, followed by preferential incorporation of a single CNGB1 subunit. Deletion of the carboxy-terminal leucine zipper domain relaxed the constraint and permitted multiple CNGB1 subunits in the channel. The X-ray crystal structures of the parallel 3-helix coiled-coil domains of CNGA1 and CNGA3 subunits were similar, suggesting that a similar mechanism controls the stoichiometry of cone CNG channels

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research

A Lung Segmental Model of Chronic <em>Pseudomonas</em> Infection in Sheep

Chronic lung infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major contributor to morbidity, mortality and premature death in cystic fibrosis. A new paradigm for managing such infections is needed, as are relevant and translatable animal models to identify and test concepts. We sought to improve on limitations associated with existing models of infection in small animals through developing a lung segmental model of chronic Pseudomonas infection in sheep.Using local lung instillation of P. aeruginosa suspended in agar beads we were able to demonstrate that such infection led to the development of a suppurative, necrotising and pyogranulomatous pneumonia centred on the instilled beads. No overt evidence of organ or systemic compromise was apparent in any animal during the course of infection. Infection persisted in the lungs of individual animals for as long as 66 days after initial instillation. Quantitative microbiology applied to bronchoalveolar lavage fluid derived from infected segments proved an insensitive index of the presence of significant infection in lung tissue (>10(4) cfu/g).The agar bead model of chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection in sheep is a relevant platform to investigate both the pathobiology of such infections as well as novel approaches to their diagnosis and therapy. Particular ethical benefits relate to the model in terms of refining existing approaches by compromising a smaller proportion of the lung with infection and facilitating longitudinal assessment by bronchoscopy, and also potentially reducing animal numbers through facilitating within-animal comparisons of differential therapeutic approaches

Aggression, anxiety and vocalizations in animals: GABA A and 5-HT anxiolytics

A continuing challenge for preclinical research on anxiolytic drugs is to capture the affective dimension that characterizes anxiety and aggression, either in their adaptive forms or when they become of clinical concern. Experimental protocols for the preclinical study of anxiolytic drugs typically involve the suppression of conditioned or unconditioned social and exploratory behavior (e.g., punished drinking or social interactions) and demonstrate the reversal of this behavioral suppression by drugs acting on the benzodiazepine-GABA A complex. Less frequently, aversive events engender increases in conditioned or unconditioned behavior that are reversed by anxiolytic drugs (e.g., fear-potentiated startle). More recently, putative anxiolytics which target 5-HT receptor subtypes produced effects in these traditional protocols that often are not systematic and robust. We propose ethological studies of vocal expressions in rodents and primates during social confrontations, separation from social companions, or exposure to aversive environmental events as promising sources of information on the affective features of behavior. This approach focusses on vocal and other display behavior with clear functional validity and homology. Drugs with anxiolytic effects that act on the benzodiazepine-GABA A receptor complex and on 5-HT 1A receptors systematically and potently alter specific vocalizations in rodents and primates in a pharmacologically reversible manner; the specificity of these effects on vocalizations is evident due to the effectiveness of low doses that do not compromise other physiological and behavioral processes. Antagonists at the benzodiazepine receptor reverse the effects of full agonists on vocalizations, particularly when these occur in threatening, startling and distressing contexts. With the development of antagonists at 5-HT receptor subtypes, it can be anticipated that similar receptor-specificity can be established for the effects of 5-HT anxiolytics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46351/1/213_2005_Article_BF02245590.pd

Monocyte galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine-specific C-type lectin receptor stimulant immunotherapy of an experimental glioma. Part 1: stimulatory effects on blood monocytes and monocyte-derived cells of the brain

Sergiy V Kushchayev,1 Tejas Sankar,1 Laura L Eggink,4,5 Yevgeniya S Kushchayeva,5 Philip C Wiener,1,5 J Kenneth Hoober,5,6 Jennifer Eschbacher,3 Ruolan Liu,2 Fu-Dong Shi,2 Mohammed G Abdelwahab,4 Adrienne C Scheck,4 Mark C Preul11Neurosurgery Research Laboratory, 2Neuroimmunology Laboratory, 3Department of Pathology, 4Neurooncology Research, Barrow Neurological Institute, St Joseph&amp;#39;s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, 5School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, 6Susavion Biosciences, Inc, Tempe, AZ, USAObjectives: Immunotherapy with immunostimulants is an attractive therapy against gliomas. C-type lectin receptors specific for galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine (GCLR) regulate cellular differentiation, recognition, and trafficking of monocyte-derived cells. A peptide mimetic of GCLR ligands (GCLRP) was used to activate blood monocytes and populations of myeloid-derived cells against a murine glioblastoma.Methods: The ability of GCLRP to stimulate phagocytosis by human microglia and monocyte-derived cells of the brain (MDCB) isolated from a human glioblastoma was initially assessed in vitro. Induction of activation markers on blood monocytes was assayed by flow cytometry after administration of GCLRP to naive mice. C57BL/6 mice underwent stereotactic intracranial implantation of GL261 glioma cells and were randomized for tumor size by magnetic resonance imaging, which was also used to assess increase in tumor size. Brain tumor tissues were analyzed using flow cytometry, histology, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with respect to tumor, peritumoral area, and contralateral hemisphere regions.Results: GCLRP exhibited strong stimulatory effect on MDCBs and blood monocytes in vitro and in vivo. GCLRP was associated with an increased percentage of precursors of dendritic cells in the blood (P = 0.003), which differentiated into patrolling macrophages in tumoral (P = 0.001) and peritumoral areas (P = 0.04), rather than into dendritic cells, as in control animals. Treatment with GCLRP did not result in a significant change in survival of mice bearing a tumor.Conclusions: In vitro and in vivo activation of monocytes was achieved by administration of GCLR to mice. GCLRP-activated blood monocytes were recruited to the brain and exhibited specific phenotypes corresponding with tumor region (glioma, peritumoral zone, and contralateral glioma-free hemisphere). GCLRP treatment alone was associated with increased glioma mass as the result of the infiltration of phagocytic cells. Regional specificity for MDCB may have significant tumor treatment implications.Keywords: microglia, macrophages, peptide, brain tumor, glioblastoma, mouse, C-type lectin receptors, galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine, immunotherap