Background: During the aging process, muscle atrophy and neuromuscular junction remodeling are inevitable. The present study aimed to clarify whether low-intensity aerobic exercise along with limb blood-flow restriction (BFR) could improve aging-induced muscle atrophy and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) at the neuromuscular junction.Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats, aged 23–24 m...

Sydney Brenner promoted Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism, and subsequent investigations pursued resistance to the nicotinic anthelmintic drug levamisole in C. elegans at a genetic level. These studies have advanced our understanding of genes associated with neuromuscular transmission and resistance to the antinematodal drug. In lev-8 and lev-1 mutant C. elegans, levamisole resistance ...

The Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junction (NMJ) contains three pharmacologically distinct ionotropic receptors: gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors, levamisole-sensitive nicotinic receptors, and levamisole-insensitive nicotinic receptors. The subunit compositions of the gamma-aminobutyric acid- and levamisole-sensitive receptors have been elucidated, but the levamisole-insensitive acetylc...

Adverse effects have limited the clinical use of telithromycin. Preferential inhibition of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) at the neuromuscular junction (α3β2 and NMJ), the ciliary ganglion of the eye (α3β4 and α7), and the vagus nerve innervating the liver (α7) could account for the exacerbation of myasthenia gravis, the visual disturbance, and the liver failure seen with telithr...

Neuromuscular blocking drugs are designed to bind to the nicotinic receptor at the neuromuscular junction. However, they also interact with other acetylcholine receptors in the body. Binding to these receptors causes adverse effects that vary with the specificity for the cholinergic receptor in question. Moreover, all neuromuscular blocking drugs may cause hypersensitivity reactions. Often the ...

To the Editor:—We read with interest article by Jonsson et al. suggesting that nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents concentration-dependently inhibit human neuronal acetylcholine autoreceptors (nAChRs). The authors argue that the inhibition of the presynaptic 3 2 nAChR subtype plays an important role in tetanic and train-of-four fade seen during nondepolarizing neuromuscular blockade. ...

To the Editor:—We read with interest article by Jonsson et al. suggesting that nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents concentration-dependently inhibit human neuronal acetylcholine autoreceptors (nAChRs). The authors argue that the inhibition of the presynaptic 3 2 nAChR subtype plays an important role in tetanic and train-of-four fade seen during nondepolarizing neuromuscular blockade. ...

Correspondence to: Dr Saiju Jacob, Department of Neurology, Queen Elizabeth Neurosciences Centre, University Hospitals of Birmingham, B15 2TH, UK; [email protected] Myasthenia gravis is the most common autoimmune disease affecting the neuromuscular junction and is characterised by painless fatigable muscle weakness. It is caused by autoantibodies against neuromuscular junction proteins, eithe...

In this study, effects of Buthus eupeus venom on chick biventer cervices nerve-muscle preparation were investigated by twitch tension method. The venom, at 1.3 ?g/ml, increased contractile responses in indirect stimulations. These effects were milder in direct muscle stimulations. It also caused significant enhancement in postjunctional sensitivity as assessed by responses to exogenous acetylch...