Publications related to Nicotinic agonist

Neuromodulation of neocortical microcircuitry: a multi-scale framework to model the effects of cholinergic release

Neuromodulation of neocortical microcircuits is one of the most fascinating and mysterious aspects of brain physiology. Despite over a century of research, the neuroscientific community has yet to uncover the fundamental biological organizing principles un ...

EPFL2022

Mechanistic Understanding of Neurobehavioral Effects of Insecticides on the Larvae of Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Sarah-Katharina Könemann

Due to conservation of neuronal functioning across phyla, molecular targets of insecticides are similar in insects and vertebrates. Insecticides thus pose a risk to aquatic vertebrates, such as fish, and potentially cause neurotoxic effects. Although these ...

EPFL2022

Cell-type-specific nicotinic input disinhibits mouse barrel cortex during active sensing

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Célia Roxane Gasselin, Benoît Hohl

Fast synaptic transmission relies upon the activation of ionotropic receptors by neurotransmitter release to evoke postsynaptic potentials. Glutamate and GABA play dominant roles in driving highly dynamic activity in synaptically connected neuronal circuit ...

CELL PRESS2021

Allosteric modulators enhance agonist efficacy by increasing the residence time of a GPCR in the active state

Anne-Marinette Thi Phuong Hanh Cao

Here, the authors use smFRET to assess the structural dynamics of metabotropic glutamate receptor mGlu2 and show that a positive allosteric modulator or the Gi protein stabilize mGlu2 in the glutamate-induced active state, leading to the full activation of ...

Nature Portfolio2021

Electrochemical determination of nicotine in smokers' sweat

Sandro Carrara, Tugba Kilic

In this work, we report the demonstration of the capability of electrochemical sensors to provide measurements directly on the sweat of volunteers to successfully discriminate heavy smokers by light ones. Since its importance as pharmaceutical treatment-ag ...

ELSEVIER2020

Nicotine increases sleep spindle activity

Christian O'Reilly

Studies have shown that both nicotine and sleep spindles are associated with enhanced memorisation. Further, a few recent studies have shown how cholinergic input through nicotinic and muscarinic receptors can trigger or modulate sleep processes in general ...

WILEY2019

Associations between genetic variations and global motion perception

Michael Herzog

The cholinergic system is known to strongly modulate perceptual and cognitive processes, and the alpha7 subunit of the cholinergic nicotinic receptor (CHRNA7) is broadly expressed within the visual system. Here, we assessed whether genetic variations of CH ...

2019

Cellular, Synaptic and Network Effects of Acetylcholine in the Neocortex

Henry Markram, Srikanth Ramaswamy, Daniel Keller, Cristina Colangelo, Polina Shichkova

The neocortex is densely innervated by basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic neurons. Long-range axons of cholinergic neurons regulate higher-order cognitive function and dysfunction in the neocortex by releasing acetylcholine (ACh). ACh release dynamically rec ...

2019

Image-Based Marker-Free Screening of GABA(A) Agonists, Antagonists, and Modulators

Gerardo Turcatti, Benjamin Rappaz, Fabien Kuttler, Damiano Banfi, Pierre Marquet, Pascal Jourdain

The ionotropic GABA(A) receptors represent the main target for different groups of widely used drugs having hypnotic and anxiolytic effects. So far, most approaches used to assess GABA activity involve invasive low -throughput electrophysiological techniqu ...

2019

GABA A receptors in the ventral tegmental area control the outcome of a social competition in rats

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Michael van der Kooij, Ioannis Zalachoras

Social dominance can be attained through social competitions. Recent work in both humans and rodents has identified trait anxiety as a crucial predictor of social competitiveness. In addition, the anxiolytic GABAA positive modulator, diazepam, injected eit ...

2018

SNAP-Tagged Nanobodies Enable Reversible Optical Control of a G Protein-Coupled Receptor via a Remotely Tethered Photoswitchable Ligand

Kai Johnsson, Johannes Broichhagen, Helen Rebecca Ostlund Farrants

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate the transduction of extracellular signals into complex intracellular responses. Despite their ubiquitous roles in physiological processes and as drug targets for a wide range of disorders, the precise mechanisms ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2018

Pharmacological stimulation to facilitate and restore standing and walking functions in spinal cord motor disorders

Grégoire Courtine, Quentin Barraud, Pavel Musienko

The invention relates to the selective targeting of specific α2 adrenergic receptor subtypes for facilitating and also restoring standing and walking in a subject affected by spinal cord disorders, in particular spinal cord injury. In particular, the impro ...

2016

Dithiol amino acids can structurally shape and enhance the ligand-binding properties of polypeptides

Christian Heinis, Rudolf Hovius, Florence Pojer, Shiyu Chen, Ranganath Gopalakrishnan

The disulfide bonds that form between two cysteine residues are important in defining and rigidifying the structures of proteins and peptides. In polypeptides containing multiple cysteine residues, disulfide isomerization can lead to multiple products with ...

Nature Publishing Group2014

Visual backward masking deficits in schizotypy are observed in late but not early onset nicotine smokers

Michael Herzog, Christine Mohr, Guillaume Sierro, Géraldine Beaud

Visual backward masking (VBM) is a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia. Relative VBM deficits were also observed in high as compared to low scorers in one schizotypal subdimension (cognitive disorganisation, CogDis; Cappe et al., 2012). VBM deficits ...

2014

Probing Odorant-Mediated Receptor Activation

Olivia Baud

Molecular interactions of odorants with their olfactory receptors (ORs) are of central importance for the mammalian olfactory system to detect and discriminate a large variety of odors with a limited set of receptors. How a particular OR binds and distingu ...

EPFL2012

Genome-Wide Histone Acetylation Is Altered in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease

In Huntington's disease (HD; MIM ID # 143100), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder, transcriptional dysregulation is a key pathogenic feature. Histone modifications are altered in multiple cellular and animal models of HD suggesting a potential mechanism fo ...

Public Library Science2012

A Fluorescent Sensor for GABA and Synthetic GABA(B) Receptor Ligands

Kai Johnsson, Luc Reymond, Anastasiya Masharina, Keitaro Umezawa

While gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter, suitable tools to measure its concentration in living cells with high spatiotemporal resolution are missing. Herein, we describe the first ratiometric fluorescent sensor for GABA ...

American Chemical Society2012

Acetylcholine Receptor Organization in Membrane Domains in Muscle Cells: EVIDENCE FOR RAPSYN-INDEPENDENT AND RAPSYN-DEPENDENT MECHANISMS

Horst Vogel, Rudolf Hovius, Jean-Manuel Segura, Joachim Piguet, Christoph Schreiter

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) in muscle fibers are densely packed in the postsynaptic region at the neuromuscular junction. Rapsyn plays a central role in directing and clustering nAChR during cellular differentiation and neuromuscular junction ...

American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology2011

Predicting Novel Binding Modes of Agonists to β Adrenergic Receptors Using All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Ursula Röthlisberger, Ivano Tavernelli, Marilisa Neri, Stefano Vanni

Understanding the binding mode of agonists to adrenergic receptors is crucial to enabling improved rational design of new therapeutic agents. However, so far the high conformational flexibility of G protein-coupled receptors has been an obstacle to obtaini ...

Public Library of Science2011

Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy to Study Plasma Membrane Protein Dynamics

Joachim Piguet

Membrane protein dynamics is of great importance for living organisms. The precise localization of proteins composing a synapse on the membrane facing a nerve terminus is essential for proper functioning of the nervous system. In muscle fibers, the nicotin ...

EPFL2010