The effect of different nootropic drugs (piracetam, pyritinol, meclofenoxate, methylglucamine orotate, dihydroergotoxine, nicergoline, vinpocetine) on the duration of immobility in the behavioural despair test in mice was studied. All tested nootropics exhibited a dose-related reduction in immobility. In connection with the discussed role of monoaminergic processes in the state of immobility ou...

We used (+)[llC]dihydrotetrabenazine, a new ligand for the type 2 vesicular monoamine transporter, with positron emission tomography to study striatal monoaminergic presynaptic terminals in 7 male severe chronic alcoholic subjects without Wernicke-Korsakoff disease compared with 7 male normal controls of similar ages. We found reduced specific binding in the caudate nucleus and putamen in the a...

In Drosophila, pulsed production of the steroid hormone ecdysone plays a pivotal role in developmental transitions such as metamorphosis. Ecdysone production is regulated in the prothoracic gland (PG) by prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) and insulin-like peptides (Ilps). Here, we show that monoaminergic autocrine regulation of ecdysone biosynthesis in the PG is essential for metamorphosis. PG-s...

Using histochemical and immunocytochemical methods the intramural neural tissue of the pancreas was investigated in non-diabetic and in alloxan-diabetic rats. It was demonstrated that the non-diabetic pancreas contains an average of 2.71 cel ls /mm 3 tissue that react positive for activity of acetylcholinesterase and 2.38 cel ls /mm 3 tissue that show monoamine oxidase activity. Both cholinergi...

The early occurrence of brainstem-related symptoms, e.g. gait and balance impairment, apathy and depression in Alzheimer's disease patients suggests brainstem involvement in the initial pathogenesis. To address the question whether tau filament forming mice expressing mutated human tau mirror histopathological changes observed in Alzheimer brainstem, the degree and distribution of neurofibrilla...

Endogenous trace amines (TAs) of unknown biological function are structurally related to classic monoaminergic neurotransmitters and found at low concentrations in the mammalian brain. Their recently discovered group of G protein-coupled receptors, trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs), may represent putative targets not only for trace and other amines but also for a variety of monoaminergic...

Dorsal rhizotomy results in primary deafferentation of the dorsal horn with concomitant sprouting of spared intraspinal monoaminergic axons. Because descending monoaminergic systems are thought to mitigate nociceptive transmission from the periphery and because dorsal rhizotomy can result in neuropathic pain, we sought to determine whether the rhizotomy-induced sprouting response could be furth...