Heterozygous null mutations in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) cause early-onset obesity in humans, indicating that metabolic homeostasis is sensitive to quantitative variation in MC4R function. Most of the obesity-causing MC4R mutations functionally characterized so far lead to intracellular retention of receptors by the cell's quality control system. Thus, recovering cell surface expressio...

The chick embryo cardiomyocyte model of cell culture is a staple technique in many physiology and pharmacology laboratories. Despite the relative simplicity, robustness, and reproducibility inherent in this model, it can be used in a variety of ways to yield important new insights that help facilitate student understanding of underlying physiological and pharmacological concepts as well as, mor...

BACKGROUND Non-medical prescribing (NMP) is a six month course for nurses and certain allied health professionals. It is critical that these students develop a good understanding of pharmacology; however, many students are mature learners with little or no formal biological science knowledge and struggle with the pharmacology component. The implications for patient safety are profound, therefor...

Positron emission tomography (PET) provides a means of studying physiological and pharmacological processes as they occur in the living brain. Mice, rats, dogs, cats, pigs and non-human primates are often used in studies using PET. They are commonly anaesthetized with ketamine, propofol or isoflurane in order to prevent them from moving during the imaging procedure. The use of anaesthesia in PE...

Lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) are a group of genetic disorders due to defects in any aspect of lysosomal biology. During the past two decades, different approaches have been introduced for the treatment of these conditions. Among them, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) represented a major advance and is used successfully in the treatment of some of these disorders. However, ERT has limitatio...

BACKGROUND A key procedure of the rhythm control strategy in atrial fibrillation (AF) is cardioversion to normal sinus rhythm. The aim of the present study was to provide a review of treatment patterns for the cardioversion of patients with AF in a hospital setting in Poland and document the success rate of various cardioversion procedures. METHODS We herein present the results from Poland of...

pharmacological responses is the formation of a complex between the ligand (or drug or molecule) and its site of action (Taylor & Insel, 1990). Competitive binding experiments ascertain how specific the interaction is between a ligand and its binding site by examining the ability of various compounds to compete with a radiolabelled reference probe for the site. The more potently a drug binds to...

Citation: Rizzo R, Pellico A, Silvestri PR, Chiarotti F and Cardona F (2018) A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Behavioral, Educational, and Pharmacological Treatments in Youths With Chronic Tic Disorder or Tourette Syndrome. Front. Psychiatry 9:100. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00100 a randomized controlled Trial comparing Behavioral, educational, and Pharmacological Treatments in Youths With ...

AIMS To estimate the prevalence of self-reported pharmacological neuroenhancement (PNE) with prescription or recreational drugs among the Swiss general population and correlates of PNE. DESIGN A population-based cross-sectional study using a self-administered online survey. SETTING A telephone-recruited highly representative internet panel in Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS A total of 10,171 Sw...