Deficits in cholinergic systems innervating cerebral cortex are associated with cognitive impairment during senescence and in age-related neurodegenerative pathologies. However, little is known about the role of cholinergic pathways in modulating cortical plasticity. Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons are a major target for nerve-growth factor (NGF). In order to investigate the relationship be...

Physiologic anti-inflammatory mechanisms are selected by evolution to control the immune system and to prevent infectious and inflammatory disorders. Central-acting alpha2-agonists attenuate systemic inflammation and improve survival in experimental sepsis. This anti-inflammatory and therapeutic mechanism of central sympatholytics appears to be mediated by an unexpected vagomimetic potential of...

\ 7arious drugs and methods have been used in the * treatment of asthma in Japan. The basic treatment in Japan is presumably similar to other countries. For symptomatic treatment, bronchodilators which include (J-agonists and xanthine derivatives, are considered to be the first choice drugs. Steroids are used for intractable or life-threatening asthma. Other medications include anticough prepar...

Increased inflammation arising from an abnormal immune response can damage healthy tissue and lead to disease progression. An important example of this is the accumulation of inflammatory mediators in the kidney, which can subsequently lead to hypertension and renal injury. The origin of this inflammation may involve neuro-immune interactions. For example, the novel vagus nerve-to-spleen mechan...

Deficiency of the cholinergic system is thought to play a vital role in cognitive impairment of dementia. DL0410 was discovered as a dual inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinestease (BuChE), with potent efficiency in in-vitro experiments, but its in vivo effect on the cholinergic model has not been evaluated, and its action mechanism has also not been illustrated. In the p...

The cholinergic nervous system can inhibit the systemic inflammation accompanying sepsis by virtue of a specific action of acetylcholine on alpha7 cholinergic receptors. The current authors sought to determine the effect of nicotine, an alpha7 cholinergic receptor agonist, on the host response to pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mice were intranasally infected with S. pneumoniae an...

Picolinic acid, a pyridine monocarboxylic acid derived from tryptophan metabolism by the kynurenine pathway, was shown to block cortical cholinergic neurotoxicity induced by quinolinic acid (QUIN), a pyridine dicarboxylic acid yielded by the same pathway. This study examined the specificity of the anti-toxic effect of picolinic acid by comparing its effect with several structurally related mono...

We observed the inhibitive effect of electroacupuncture (EA) at Zusanli on inflammatory mediators of postoperative intra-abdominal adhesions to find out the relationship between EA and the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. Sixty-four rats were divided into 8 groups (A-H, each = 8): A = sham control; B = abdominal adhesions model; C = abdominal adhesions plus EA; D = sham acupoint control; ...