The immobilization of brain dopamine receptors (primary targets in the treatment of schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s chorea) on a solid support can represent an appealing strategy for the realization of biosensors for dopamine and dopaminergic drugs. Our final goal is the realization of an optical biosensor that allows parallel quantitative analysis, with different receptors...

A previous study from our laboratory revealed that moderate nigral dopaminergic degeneration caused emotional and cognitive deficits in rats, paralleling early signs of Parkinson's disease. Recent evidence suggests that the blockade of cannabinoid CB(1) receptors might be beneficial to alleviate motor inhibition typical of Parkinson's disease. Here, we investigated whether antagonism of CB(1) r...

The novel benzoindane S 18126 possessed > 100-fold higher affinity at cloned, human (h) D4 (Ki = 2.4 nM) vs. hD2 (738 nM), hD3 (2840 nM), hD1 (> 3000 nM) and hD5 (> 3000 nM) receptors and about 50 other sites, except sigma1 receptors (1.6 nM). L 745,870 similarly showed selectivity for hD4 (2.5 nM) vs. hD2 (905 nM) and hD3 (> 3000 nM) receptors. In contrast, raclopride displayed low affinity at...

In Parkinson's disease the dopaminergic inhibition--mediated by DA2 receptors in the striatum--is reduced. Therefore glutamatergic excitation predominates in the antero-dorsal striatum. In turn the glutamatergic neurons of the subthalamic nucleus become disinhibited. Antagonists of the NMDA-subtype of glutamate receptors injected locally into the glutamatergically innervated nuclei or competiti...

Background and Objective: Methylphenidate (MPH), as a central nervous system stimulant, is often used to manage hyperactive disorders. The literature is scarce regarding the behavioral consequences of chronic MPH treatment and the role of involved receptors. Thus, in the current study involved receptors in MPH induced-anxiety, depression and motor activity disorders were evaluated. Materials a...

background: melatonin has receptors in substantia nigra pars compacta (snc) and regulates development of dopaminergic (da) neurons. this study was undertaken to determine ability of melatonin to protect snc dopaminergic neuron loss induced by estrogen deficiency in ovariectomized rats. methods: female rats were randomized into four groups of seven each: control, ethanol sham, ovariectomy (ovx) ...

prepulse inhibition (ppi), the objective measure of sensorimotor gating disturbance has being widely used in animal models of schizophrenia. dopaminergic direct and indirect agonists impair ppi. however, the profile of dopaminergic receptors involved in ppi impairment by dopamine agonists is not clear. by injecting shrna expressing plasmids against dopamine d2 receptor genes (drd2) in the nucle...

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of both Drosophila and mammals. Despite the evolutionary distance, functional parallels exist between the fly and mammalian dopaminergic systems, with both playing roles in modulating locomotor activity, sexual function, and the response to drugs of abuse. In mammals, dopamine exerts its effects through either dopamine 1-li...

Prokineticin-2 (PK2), a recently discovered secreted protein, regulates important physiological functions including olfactory biogenesis and circadian rhythms in the CNS. Interestingly, although PK2 expression is low in the nigral system, its receptors are constitutively expressed on nigrostriatal neurons. Herein, we demonstrate that PK2 expression is highly induced in nigral dopaminergic neuro...