Pilocarpine is a prototypical drug used to treat glaucoma and dry mouth and is classified as either a full or partial muscarinic agonist. Here, we report several unexpected results pertaining to its interaction with muscarinic M3 receptor (M3R). We found that pilocarpine was 1000 times less potent in stimulating mouse-eye pupil constriction than muscarinic agonists oxotremorin-M (Oxo-M) or carb...

Ascorbic acid has many nonenzymatic actions and is a powerful water-soluble antioxidant. It protects low density lipoproteins from oxidation and reduces harmful oxidants in the central nervous system. Pilocarpine-induced seizures have been suggested to be mediated by increases in oxidative stress. Current studies have suggested that antioxidant compounds may afford some level of neuroprotection...

In this study, the effects of subcutaneous (SC) injection of pilocarpine (a cholinomimetic agent) and atropine (a muscarinic receptors antagonist) were investigated on a tonic model of orofacial pain in rats. The contribution of the endogenous analgesic opioid system was assessed using naloxone (an opioid receptors antagonist). Tonic orofacial pain was induced by SC injection of a diluted forma...

introduction: gestational stress can lead to cerebral functional disorders, such as epilepsy, probably due to the disturbance in the cerebral maturation and causing abnormal neuronal correlations. in the present study, effect of gestational predator stress on the neonatal epileptic behaviors was investigated in rats. methods: female rats (200 ± 20 g) were divided into two groups intact pregnant...

Pilocarpine (cholinergic muscarinic agonist) injected peripherally may act centrally to produce pressor responses; in the present study, using c-fos immunoreactive expression, we investigated the forebrain and brainstem areas activated by pressor doses of intravenous (i.v.) pilocarpine. In addition, the importance of vasopressin secretion and/or sympathetic activation and the effects of lesions...

In this study we investigated whether intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of L-NAME (a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor) or CaEDTA (an extracellular zinc chelator) or the combination of the two could affect the initial phase of pilocarpine induced (2 h) seizures. Two groups of rats were used. Animals from both groups were given with i.c.v. injections of either saline (10 microl), L-NAME (...

It is known that •pilocarpine injected into the anterior chamber affects outflow facility in much smaller doses in the vervet (Cercopithecus ethiops) than in the cynomolgus (Macaca irus). The present experiments toere performed in order to determine whether a similar species difference, with respect to pilocarpine sensitivity, is present in the sphincter pupillae and the muscle of accommodation...

Many of the alkaloids used as drugs today are from natural sources. These drugs have been modified to produce analogs for clinical use. One of these alkaloids, pilocarpine, is an imidazole alkaloid found in plants of the genus Pilocarpus (Fig. 1). Plants of this genus are designated by the name jaborandi but only Pilocarpus microphyllus, which accumulates the highest pilocarpine content, is con...

introduction: temporal lobe epilepsy (tle) is the most common and drug resistant epilepsy in adults. due to behavioral, morphologic and electrographic similarities, pilocarpine model of epilepsy best resembles tle. this study was aimed at determination of the changes in electroencephalogram (eeg) sub-bands amplitude during focal seizures in the pilocarpine model of epilepsy. analysis of these c...

BACKGROUND Xerostomia (dry mouth) is a clinical symptom due to a number of factors, including Sjögren syndrome and radiation treatment to the head and neck region. It has been reported that acupuncture increases the salivary flow rate (SFR) in healthy subjects and in patients with xerostomia. A prognostic tool that would allow the care provider to identify patients who may respond to acupunctur...