Objective(s) Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) regulate epileptiform activity and produce a sustained pro-epileptogenic action within the hippocampal slices. In the present study, we investigated the effect of nAChRs on evoked glutamatergic synaptic transmission in area CA3 and CA1 of rat hippocampal slices to identify possible excitatory circuits through which activation of nAChRs pr...

Cholinergic input to the optic tectum is necessary for visual map maintenance. To understand why, we examined the effects of activation of the different cholinergic receptor subtypes in tectal brain slices and determined whether the retinotectal map was affected by manipulations of their activity in vivo. Both alpha-bungarotoxin sensitive and insensitive nicotinic receptor agonists increased sp...

A critical event in the history of biological chemistry was the chemical identification of the first neurotransmitter receptor, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Disciplines as diverse as electrophysiology, pharmacology, and biochemistry joined together in a unified and rational manner with the common goal of successfully identifying the molecular device that converts a chemical signal into...

Nitromethylene heterocycle insecticides are known to act on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-channel. The effects of the nitromethylene heterocycle, imidacloprid, on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-channel of clonal rat phaeochromocytoma (PC12) cells were studied using whole-cell and single-channel patch clamp methods. Imidacloprid suppressed carbachol-induced whole-cell currents in a ...

Yoon JY, Jung SR, Hille B, Koh DS. Modulation of nicotinic receptor channels by adrenergic stimulation in rat pinealocytes. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 306: C726–C735, 2014. First published February 19, 2014; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00354.2013.—Melatonin secretion from the pineal gland is triggered by norepinephrine released from sympathetic terminals at night. In contrast, cholinergic and parasympat...