UNLABELLED Objective(s ): Targeting the neuropeptide systems has been shown to be useful for the development of more effective antipsychotic drugs. Neurotensin, an endogenous neuropeptide, appears to be involved in the mechanism of action of antipsychotics. However, the available data provide conflicting results and the mechanism(s) by which antipsychotics affect brain neurotensin neurotransmis...

This paper compares the localization of neurotensin receptors and of endopeptidase 24-16, a peptidase likely involved in the inactivation of neurotensin in primary cultures of neurons. Neurotensin binding sites were radiolabeled with 125I-Tyr3-neurotensin, whereas endopeptidase 24-16 was stained by immunohistochemical techniques using a monospecific polyclonal antibody. Endopeptidase 24-16 is p...

Neurotensin has bipolar (facilitatory and inhibitory) effects on pain modulation that may physiologically exist in homeostasis. Facilitation predominates at low (picomolar) doses of neurotensin injected into the rostroventral medial medulla (RVM), whereas higher doses (nanomolar) produce antinociception. SR 48692, a neurotensin receptor antagonist, discriminates between receptors mediating thes...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Neurotensin is a gut-brain peptide with both inhibitory and excitatory actions on the colonic musculature; our objective was to understand the implications of this for motor patterns occurring in the intact colon of the rat. METHODS The effects of neurotensin with concentrations ranging from 0.1-100 nM were studied in the intact rat colon in vitro, by investigating spatio-temp...

Microglia motility plays a crucial role in response to lesion or exocytotoxic damage of the cerebral tissue. We used two in vitro assays, a wound-healing model and a chemotaxis assay, to show that the neuropeptide neurotensin elicited the migration of the human microglial cell line C13NJ by a mechanism dependent on both phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) and mitogen-activated protein (...

UNLABELLED The mouse double-minute 2 (MDM2) oncogene, amplified or overexpressed in many human cancers, has been suggested to be a novel target for cancer therapy. Visualization of MDM2 expression using radionuclide targeting can provide important diagnostic information in malignant tumors. The overall aim of this study was to evaluate whether liposome-coated (99m)Tc-radiolabeled antisense olig...

The influence of the vagal nerve on the inhibitory effect of neurotensin on pentagastrin stimulated gastric acid secretion was investigated in seven duodenal ulcer patients before and after parietal cell vagotomy without drainage. Preoperatively, neurotensin inhibited gastric acid secretion, whereas no effect was found postoperatively. Plasma concentration of neurotensin was identical pre-and p...

The neuropeptide neurotensin mediates several intestinal functions, including chloride secretion, motility, and cellular growth. However, whether this peptide participates in intestinal inflammation is not known. Toxin A, an enterotoxin from Clostridium difficile, mediates pseudomembranous colitis in humans. In animal models, toxin A causes an acute inflammatory response characterized by activa...

OBJECTIVES Several lines of evidence indicate that neuropeptides exhibit protective properties against gastroduodenal ulcers. Neurotensin, a gut-brain neuropeptide, is implicated in a number of physiological processes in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues including gastrointestinal tract. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the gastroprotective potential of either perip...

Neurotensin, a neuropeptide growth factor, and its two specific neurotensin receptors, NTSR1 and NTSR2, were shown to be expressed by human B cell lines. Another NTSR, sortilin, which is common to neurotensin and neurotrophins, was also detected as we have previously described. Neurotensin was functional in B cell lines; it induced their proliferation and inhibited apoptosis induced by serum de...