Cobra neurotoxin, a short-chain peptide isolated from snake venom of Naja naja atra, showed both a central analgesic effect and a hyperalgesic effect in mice tests. In order to explore mechanisms, a hypothesis is put forward that cobra neurotoxin takes effect through adenosine receptor pathway. The central effects of cobra neurotoxin were evaluated using the hot plate test (a model of acute pai...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an endothelial cell mitogen that promotes angiogenesis during embryonic development and the progression of certain pathologies. This study examined the regulation of VEGF expression by adenosine receptor (AR) activation in PC12 rat pheochromocytoma cells. Treatment of cells with the AR agonist CGS21680 reduced the VEGF mRNA level to approximately 20%...

The current studies investigated the in vitro and in vivo effect of adenosine 2A receptor (A(2A)R) agonists to attenuate allogenic immune activation. We performed MLRs with spleen T lymphocytes and APCs isolated from wild-type and A(2A)R knockout mice of both C57BL/6 and BALB/c background strains. Two-way MLR-stimulated T cell proliferation was reduced by ATL313, a selective A(2A)R agonist in a...

PURPOSE Nowadays adenosine is specified as an important factor in the pathophysiology of asthma. For determining the effect of different A2 receptors, in this investigation the effect of single dose of selective adenosine A2A and A2B antagonists (ZM241385 and MRS1706) on different inflammatory parameters; tracheal responsiveness to methacholine and ovalbumin, total and differential cell count i...

The adenosine A(2A) receptor (A(2A)R) is a G-protein-coupled receptor that plays a key role in transmembrane signalling mediated by the agonist adenosine. The structure of A(2A)R was determined recently in an antagonist-bound conformation, which was facilitated by the T4 lysozyme fusion in cytoplasmic loop 3 and the considerable stabilisation conferred on the receptor by the bound inverse agoni...

The adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) has long been implicated in cardiovascular disorders. As more selective A2AR ligands are being identified, its roles in other disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, are starting to emerge, and A2AR antagonists are important drug candidates for nondopaminergic anti-Parkinson treatment. Here we report the crystal structure of A2A receptor bound to compound 1 (Cm...

Adenosine either inhibits or facilitates synaptic transmission through A1 or A2A receptors, respectively. Since A2A receptor density increases in the limbic cortex of aged (24 mo) compared with young adult rats (2 mo), we tested if A2A receptor modulation of synaptic transmission was also increased in aged rats. The A2A receptor agonist, CGS21680 (10 nM), caused a larger facilitation of the fie...

OBJECTIVES For determining the mechanism of anti-asthmatic effect of thymoquinone, this investigation evaluated the effect of thymoquinone in the presence of selective A2A and A2B adenosine receptor antagonists (ZM241385 and MRS1706, respectively). MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy guinea pigs were randomly divided to 7 groups; control (C), sensitized with ovalbumin (S), sensitized groups pretrea...