Memories are shown to be impaired in mice during step-down passive avoidance tasks with substantial residual effects lasting as long as 24 h after the pre-training administration of morphine. Administration of the same dose of morphine as a pre-test treatment restored memory. Since the cholinergic system has been reported to be involved in several actions of morphine, e.g.: modulation of memory...

In a preliminary antiprotozoal screening of several Clusiaceae species, the methanolic extracts of Allanblackia monticola and Symphonia globulifera showed high in vitro leishmanicidal activity. Further bioguided phytochemical investigation led to the isolation of four benzophenones: guttiferone A (1), garcinol (2), cambogin (3) and guttiferone F (4), along with three xanthones: allanxanthone A ...

Antagonism of atracurium-induced neuromuscular blockade by neostigmine or edrophonium has been studied using the tetanic (50 Hz) and train-of-four (2 Hz) or single twitch responses of the adductor pollicis muscle in 22 anaesthetized patients. A further nine patients not given an anticholinesterase acted as a control group. In two groups (six patients for each anticholinesterase) in whom antagon...

Monoclonal antibody 25B1 generated against diisopropyl phosphorofluoridate inhibited fetal bovine serum acetylcholinesterase has been extensively characterized with respect to its anticholinesterase properties. This antibody demonstrated considerably different properties from previously reported inhibitory antibodies raised against acetylcholinesterase in terms of the degree of inhibition (grea...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that was characterized with deposit of beta amyloid (Aβ) aggregate in senile plaque. Oxidative damage to neurons and loss of cholinergic neurons in forebrain region are observed in this disease. Melissa officinalis is a medicinal plant from Lamiaceae family, used traditionally in the treatment of cognitive disorders. It has cholinomimetic ...

This paper reports a retrospective study of the preoperative and postoperative management of 28 patients who underwent thymectomy between 1956 and 1973. Patients who received postoperative artificial ventilation were compared with the group who did not with respect to sex, age, severity of disease, preoperative vital capacity, and thymic histology. Evidence is presented that postoperative artif...

The present investigation was aimed at determining the effects of hexane, acetone, methanol and aqueous extracts of Acorus calamus leaves (ACHE, ACAE, ACME and ACAQE) on cholinergic and histaminic system using isolated frog rectus abdominis muscle and guinea pig ileum. A dose dependent potentiation of Ach response (anticholinesterase like effect) was found with ACAE and ACME at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 ...

The possible effects of anticholinesterases on the central nervous system and, in particular, on learning and memory, have generated considerable interest. Food caching in the black-capped chickadee is an excellent natural paradigm of spatial working memory. Its susceptibility to cholinergically active drugs was explored in the present study. Our ultimate objective was to use food caching as a ...

We describe the multigram synthesis and in vivo efficacy studies of a donepezil‒huprine hybrid that has been found to display a promising in vitro multitarget profile of interest for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Its synthesis features as the key step a novel multigram preparative chromatographic resolution of intermediate racemic huprine Y by chiral HPLC. Administration of this co...

Due to the diversity of biological activities that can be found in aquatic ecosystems, marine metabolites have been an active area of drug discovery for the last 30 years. Marine metabolites have been found to inhibit a number of enzymes important in the treatment of human disease. Here, we focus on marine metabolites that inhibit the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is the cellular target fo...