It is widely believed that dopamine (DA) mediates methamphetamine (METH)-induced toxicity to brain dopaminergic neurons, because drugs that interfere with DA neurotransmission decrease toxicity, whereas drugs that increase DA neurotransmission enhance toxicity. However, temperature effects of drugs that have been used to manipulate brain DA neurotransmission confound interpretation of the data....

Midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons are implicated in cognitive functions, neuropsychiatric disorders, and pathological conditions; hence understanding genes regulating their homeostasis has medical relevance. Transcription factors FOXA1 and FOXA2 (FOXA1/2) are key determinants of mDA neuronal identity during development, but their roles in adult mDA neurons are unknown. We used a conditional k...

Dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) functions at the surface of dopaminergic neurons to clear extracellular DA. DAT surface levels are regulated by endocytosis. However, the endosome-lysosome system is not well characterized in dopaminergic neurons and the endocytic trafficking of endogenous DAT is poorly studied. Hence we analyzed the distribution of endocytic compartments and DAT localization in ...

Quinpirole (QNP) is a D2-like dopamine (DA) receptor agonist with some selectivity for D3 receptors, and it is the active enantiomer of quinpirole dihydrochloride. The objective of the present article is to review the available evidence published about dopamine in the Central and Peripheral Nervous System (CNS, PNS) and QNP with an emphasis on their receptors effects, the physiological and mole...

In Drosophila, dopaminergic (DA) neurons can be found from mid embryonic stages of development till adulthood. Despite their functional involvement in learning and memory, not much is known about the developmental as well as molecular mechanisms involved in the events of DA neuronal specification, differentiation and maturation. In this report we demonstrate that most larval DA neurons are gene...

During neural development, spatially regulated expression of specific transcription factors is crucial for central nervous system (CNS) regionalization, generation of neural precursors (NPs) and subsequent differentiation of specific cell types within defined regions. A critical role in dopaminergic differentiation in the midbrain (MB) has been assigned to the transcription factor Nurr1. Nurr1 ...

The primary pathological hallmark of Parkinson disease (PD) is the profound loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. To facilitate the understanding of the underling mechanism of PD, several zebrafish PD models have been generated to recapitulate the characteristics of dopaminergic (DA) neuron loss. In zebrafish studies, tyrosine hydroxylase 1 (th1) has been frequentl...

Dopamine (DA) acts as a key neurotransmitter in the brain. Numerous studies have shown its regulatory role for motor and limbic functions. However, in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD), alterations of executive functions also suggest a role for DA in regulating cognitive functions. Some other diseases, which can also involve DA dysfunction, such as schizophrenia or attention deficit ...

We developed a method for the efficient generation of functional dopaminergic (DA) neurons from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on a large scale. The most unique feature of this method is the generation of homogeneous spherical neural masses (SNMs) from the hESC-derived neural precursors. These SNMs provide several advantages: (i) they can be passaged for a long time without losing their dif...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by the loss of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons that leads to a reduction in striatal dopamine (DA) levels. Replacing lost cells by transplanting dopaminergic neurons has potential value to repair the damaged brain. Salidroside (SD), a phenylpropanoid glycoside isolated from plant Rhodiola rosea, is neuroprotective. We ...