Search results for "Cholin"

<title>Spectroscopic investigation of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor for application in medical diagnosis</title>

1998

Native vesicles containing the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) prepared from the electric organ of the ray Torpedo marmorata were used to obtain fluorescence signal sin dependence of different concentrations of the local anesthetics procaine. Nonlinear concentration dependent spectral changes are found using ethidium bromide as a fluorescence marker. Structural changes are found for the proteins including the nAChR in the vesicles during immobilization onto surfaces such as IR transparent germanium (GE) crystal, Ge crystal coated with silver (Ag) cluster to use the SEIRA effect and/or crystals covered with a lipid subphase. A comparison between Ge and Ge coated with Ag (Ge/Ag) clus…

Temperature and polymer crosslinking degree influence on drug transfer from alpha,beta-polyasparthydrazide hydrogel to model membranes. A calorimetri…

1998

Abstract A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, diflunisal, has been chosen as drug model to be incorporated in α , β -polyasparthydrazide (PAHy) matrices to study the effect of polymer crosslinking degrees on the release processes from hydrogel ( X =0.4 and X =0.8) to a model membrane represented by unilamellar vesicles of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine. The technique employed to monitor these processes was differential scanning calorimetry that appears to be particularly suitable to follow the transfer kinetics of a drug from a controlled release system to void biomembrane model. The drug release from the two PAHy hydrogels differently crosslinked by glutaraldehyde to the lipidic model w…

Vesicular Storage and Release of Cholinergic False Transmitters

1979

Publisher Summary Several analogues of choline are known, which are taken up by cholinergic nerve terminals and released in the acetylated form on stimulation. Such compounds are thus precursors of cholinergic false transmitters. This chapter discusses two compounds, N-methyl-N-2-hydroxyethylpyrrolidiniu (mPCh) and homocholine (HCh), using guinea-pig cortex and the electric organ of Torpedo marmorata. In the experiments with cortex, the false transmitter precursors were injected into the tissue and released transmitters collected in Locke solution applied to the surface of the cortex in plastic sleeves. Free vesicles and those attached to external membranes were isolated from tissue subjace…

The Uptake of Acetylpyrrolidinecholine — A False Cholinergic Transmitter — Into Mammalian Cerebral Cortical Synaptic Vesicles

1978

It is now well established that cholinergic vesicles are metabolically heterogeneous organelles. It is, however, still under discussion whether this is due to an intravesicular or an intervesicular heterogeneity. March-banks and Israel (10), supporting the hypothesis of intravesicular heterogeneity, suggested that newly formed ACh is only loosely bound to the vesicles. On the other hand, a distinct vesicle fraction obtained from the electromotor system of Torpedo marmorata after its incubation with radioisotopes shows a high specific radioactivity (12), results which favor the view that intervesicular differences do exist. Biochemical and morphological findings suggest that these vesicles h…

Heteroreceptor-mediated modulation of noradrenaline and acetylcholine release from peripheral nerves

2006

Coupling of Cholesterol and Cone-shaped Lipids in Bilayers Augments Membrane Permeabilization by the Cholesterol-specific Toxins Streptolysin O and V…

2001

Abstract Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) forms oligomeric pores in lipid bilayers containing cholesterol. Membrane permeabilization is inefficient if the sterol is embedded within bilayers prepared from phosphatidylcholine only but is greatly enhanced if the target membrane also contains ceramide. Although the enhancement of VCC action is stereospecific with respect to cholesterol, we show here that no such specificity applies to the two stereocenters in ceramide; all four stereoisomers of ceramide enhanced VCC activity in cholesterol-containing bilayers. A wide variety of ceramide analogs were as effective asd-erythro-ceramide, as was diacylglycerol, suggesting that the effect of ceramide …

Mammalian glial cells in culture synthesize acetylcholine.

1997

In the present study we demonstrate that acetylcholine is synthesized by cultured mammalian glial cells identified by cell-type specific markers. Primary cultures of rat brain astrocytes or microglia contained 2.0 and 1.6 pmol acetylcholine/10(6) cells on average respectively. Astrocyte cultures established from neonatal mouse brain contained even more acetylcholine (about 80 pmol acetylcholine/10(6) cells). Primary cultures of rat brain astrocytes showed choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) enzyme activity of 3 nmol/mg protein/h; ChAT activity was blocked by 10 microM bromoacetylcholine. In conclusion, these data demonstrate the synthesis of the "neurotransmitter" acetylcholine in cultured gli…

Allosteric modulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as a treatment strategy for Alzheimer's disease

2000

The basic symptoms of Alzheimer's dementia, i.e., a loss in cognitive function, are due to impaired nicotinic cholinergic neurotransmission. To compensate for this impairment by drug treatment, blockers of the acetylcholine-degrading enzyme acetylcholinesterase are applied, even though this approach obviously is prone to many side-effects, including those of muscarinic nature. We have recently described a novel class of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ligands which, similar to the action of benzodiazepines on GABA(A) receptors, allosterically potentiate submaximal nicotinic responses. The sensitizing effect is a consequence of facilitated channel opening in the presence of allosterically p…

Decreased response to acetylcholine during aging of Aplysia neuron R15

2013

How aging affects the communication between neurons is poorly understood. To address this question, we have studied the electrophysiological properties of identified neuron R15 of the marine mollusk Aplysia californica . R15 is a bursting neuron in the abdominal ganglia of the central nervous system and is implicated in reproduction, water balance, and heart function. Exposure to acetylcholine (ACh) causes an increase in R15 burst firing. Whole-cell recordings of R15 in the intact ganglia dissected from mature and old Aplysia showed specific changes in burst firing and properties of action potentials induced by ACh. We found that while there were no significant changes in resting membrane p…

Microscale synthesis of phosphatidyl-[3H]choline from 1,2-diacylglycerol. Assessment of isomerization by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chrom…

1995

The synthesis of rac-1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylglycero-3-phospho-[3H]choline of high specific activity was carried out on a microscale by making 7 mumol of rac-1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylglycerol react first with an equimolar amount of POCl3 and then of [3H]choline. After purification by thin-layer chromatography and normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the yield of the synthesis of [3H]phosphatidylcholine (120 microCi/mumol) was 22%. rac-1-Palmitoyl-2-oleoylglycerol was purified before use by reversed-phase HPLC under conditions which were nonisomerizing and allowed the separation of 1,2- and 1,3-isomers of diacylglycerol. E…