The A2A adenosine receptor is a G protein-coupled receptor which desensitizes upon prolonged agonist stimulation. In order to understand the biological function of its unusually long C-terminus, we screened a human brain library for proteins capable of binding to the last 120 amino acids of the A2A receptor. We identified a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the small G protein ARF6 (ARNO/c...

PURPOSE The role of adenosine and its receptors in acute pancreatitis remains unelucidated. The aim was to evaluate the effects of the adenosine A2a receptor agonist and antagonist in the severe, taurocholate-induced experimental acute pancreatitis (EAP). MATERIAL AND METHODS The experiments were performed on 80 male Wistar rats, subdivided into 4 groups: C--the control rats, I--the EAP group...

The lack of a functional Foxp3 transcription factor and regulatory T (Treg) cells causes lethal, CD4+ T cell-driven autoimmune diseases in scurfy (SF) mice and humans. Recent studies have shown that adenosine A2A receptor activation limits inflammation and tissue damage, thereby playing an anti-inflammatory role. However, the role of the adenosine A2A receptor in the development of disease in S...

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by expansion of a CAG repeat in the gene encoding for Huntingtin (Htt), which results in progressive degeneration of the striatal GABAergic/enkephalin neurons. These neurons express both the A2A and D2 receptors, which stimulate and inhibit adenylyl cyclase, respectively. In this study we analyzed the possibility of an involvement...

PURPOSE Nowadays adenosine is specified as an important factor in the pathophysiology of asthma. For determining the effect of different A2 receptors, in this investigation the effect of single dose of selective adenosine A2A and A2B antagonists (ZM241385 and MRS1706) on different inflammatory parameters; tracheal responsiveness to methacholine and ovalbumin, total and differential cell count i...

A2A adenosine receptors inhibit neutrophil adhesion and superoxide anion generation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of antihypertensive treatment with doxazosin or propranolol on the binding and functional parameters of A2A adenosine receptors of lymphocytes and neutrophils in essential hypertensive patients. Two groups of previously untreated, essential hypertensive pa...

Prior studies indicate that adenosine and the adenosine A2A receptor play a role in hepatic fibrosis by a mechanism that has been proposed to involve direct stimulation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). The objective of this study was to determine whether primary hepatic stellate cells produce collagen in response to adenosine (via activation of adenosine A2A receptors) and to further determine...

Ponzio, Todd A., Yu-Feng Wang, and Glenn I. Hatton. Activation of adenosine A2A receptors alters postsynaptic currents and depolarizes neurons of the supraoptic nucleus. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 291: R359–R366, 2006. First published April 27, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00747.2005.—Supraoptic nucleus (SON) neurons secrete oxytocin or vasopressin in response to various physiological ...

The exposure to supra-physiological levels of glucocorticoids in prenatal life can lead to a long-term impact in brain cytoarchitecture, increasing the susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders. Dexamethasone, an exogenous glucocorticoid widely used in pregnant women in risk of preterm delivery, is associated with higher rates of neuropsychiatric conditions throughout life of the descendants...