The autonomic nervous system dysfunction with increased sympathetic activity and withdrawal of vagal activity may play an important role in the pathogenesis of viral myocarditis. The vagus nerve can modulate the immune response and control inflammation through a 'cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway' dependent on the α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR). Although the role of β-adrener...

Cholinergic abnormalities, alongside senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and extensive neuronal loss, are the major characteristics in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Both nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are decreased in AD, and it has been shown that the reduction in the number of acetylcholine receptors precedes other pathologic changes. Anti-cholinergic drugs induce amnesia, ...

In the present study we investigated the participation of central H1 and H2 histaminergic receptors in water intake induced by hyperosmolarity (evoked by intragastric salt load), by hypovolemia (promoted by the subcutaneous administration of polyethyleneglycol) and by the pharmacological stimulation of central cholinergic pathways by the muscarinic agonist carbachol in male Wistar rats. The dat...

Central cholinergic overstimulation results in prolonged seizures of status epilepticus in humans and experimental animals. Cellular mechanisms of underlying seizures caused by cholinergic stimulation remain uncertain, but enhanced glutamatergic transmission is a potential mechanism. Paraoxon, an organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitor, enhanced glutamatergic transmission on hippocampal granul...

Evidence from lesion and cortical-slice studies implicate the neocortical cholinergic system in the modulation of sensory, attentional and memory processing. In this review we consider findings from sixty-three healthy human cholinergic functional neuroimaging studies that probe interactions of cholinergic drugs with brain activation profiles, and relate these to contemporary neurobiological mo...