The effects of dexfenfluramine on the release of brain dopamine and serotonin into striatal dialysates were measured in freely moving rats. Samples collected every 20 min were assayed for dopamine and serotonin by high-performance liquid chromatography in a single run. The administration of a lower anorectic dose of dexfenfluramine (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg intraperitoneally) significantly increased di...

BACKGROUND Neuropathy often occurs following drug treatment such as chemotherapy. Severe instances of neuropathy can result in cessation of life-saving chemotherapy treatment. RESULTS To support data representation and analysis of drug-associated neuropathy adverse events (AEs), we developed the Ontology of Drug Neuropathy Adverse Events (ODNAE). ODNAE extends the Ontology of Adverse Events (...

The noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist phencyclidine (PCP) and the neuronal cannabinoid receptor agonist delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are two agents shown to have psychotomimetic properties in humans. Both drugs increase dopamine release and utilization in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region thought to be dysfunctional in schizophrenia. In the present series of studies, the effects ...

In postmortem studies of patients with schizophrenia, D2 dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia have been observed to be more numerous than in patients with no history of neurological or psychiatric disease. Because most patients with schizophrenia are treated with neuroleptic drugs that block D2 dopamine receptors in the caudate nucleus, it has been suggested that this increase in the number ...

S. Akhondzadeh , A. Safarcherati & H. Amini Psychiatric Research Centre, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences; Institute of Medicinal Plants, Tehran, Iran. Schizophrenia is a chronic progressive disease and it affects more than 1% of the population. The etiology of schizophrenia remains unknown in a majority of cases (Mohammadi and Akhondzadeh, 2001). There is a large amount ...

Until recently, all known antipsychotic drugs were thought to block the dopamine D2 receptor. New evidence that agonists of the metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptors ameliorate psychotic and affective symptoms of schizophrenia suggests that compounds with different molecular targets may act on a common cellular target to treat schizophrenia. We hypothesized that normalizing the activit...

Paliperidone palmitate is a new long-acting antipsychotic injection for the treatment of acute and maintenance therapy in schizophrenia. Paliperidone (9-hydroxyrisperidone) is the major active metabolite of risperidone and acts at dopamine D(2) and serotonin 5HT(2A) receptors. As with other atypical antipsychotics, it exhibits a high 5HT(2A):D(2) affinity ratio. It also has binding activity as ...

introduction: hyperprolactinemia is a common serious side effect of antipsychotic medications that are currently used in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. pharmacogenetic approaches offer the possibility of identifying patient-specific biomarkers for predicting the risk of this side effect. we investigated a possible relationship between variants (snps) in genes for cytochrome 2d6 (...

During the history of antipsychotic medications, the dopamine D2 receptor has been the crucial main target of drug action. Typical antipsychotics, which dominated the first 25 years of antipsychotic treatment as well as atypical antipsychotics, medications of the last three decades, all retained dopamine D2 receptor antagonism as the basic mode of action. Whether the superior side-effect profil...

The preference of sweet taste in rats is a phenomenon that is influenced by many factors. Drugs, sex, and age are three important aspects to consider when determining the underlying mechanisms that influence increased intake in the presence of sweet taste. Research has shown that drugs acting on receptors and neurotransmitters of brain mechanisms relevant to hedonic and reinforcement effects ca...