Neuron muscarinic

The direct slowing of sinoatrial rate and atrioventricular conduction that is produced by muscarinic agonists is often opposed by reflex sympathetic discharge, elicited by the decrease in blood pressure (see Figure 6-7). The resultant sympathetic-parasympathetic interaction is complex because muscarinic modulation of sympathetic influences occurs by inhibition of norepinephrine release and by postjunctional cellular effects. Muscarinic receptors that are present on postganglionic parasympathetic nerve terminals allow neurally released acetylcholine to inhibit its own secretion. The neuronal muscarinic receptors need not be the same subtype as found on effector cells. Therefore, the net effect on heart rate depends on local concentrations of the agonist in the heart and in the vessels and on the level of reflex responsiveness. 

The muscarinic actions of acetylcholine can be either stimulatory or inhibitory. Acetylcholine stimulates secretion and contraction of the gut, but it inhibits the contraction of the heart and relaxes the smooth muscle of blood vessels. Acetylcholine can inhibit adenylate cyclase and activate guanylate cyclase. In the cortical neurones, muscarinic agents cause a slow depolarization mediated by closing potas-... 

There are two main types of cholinergic receptors, nicotinic and muscarinic. Nicotinic receptors are located at synapses between two neurons and at synapses between neurons and skeletal muscle cells. Upon activation a nicotinic receptor acts as a channel for the movement of ions into and out of the neuron, directly resulting in depolarization of the neuron. Muscarinic receptors, located at the synapses of nerves with smooth or cardiac muscle, trigger a chain of chemical events referred to as signal transduction. 

ACh affects Kv currents in many tissues. In sympathetic neurons, muscarinic (Ml and M3) inhibition of K" " current (M current) is important to increase the excitabihty of the neuron (54). In other tissues Ml receptor activation inhibits several types of Kv charmels (54—58). Nicotinic inhibition of delayed rectified K" " current in cardiac cells (59) and vascular smooth muscle cells (60) has been reported. Since cat glomus cells express nicotinic and muscarinic AChRs, and Kv charmels (Fig. 3), cholinergic modulation of Kv charmels may occur in cat glomus cells as well. We examined this possibility and found that low doses of ACh (lOOnM—1 pM) enhanced while high doses of ACh (100 pM—1 mM) inhibited Kv current in cat glomus cells (Fig. 4). 

The M-channels (M for muscarine) are expressed in the peripheral sympathetic neurons and CNS. In the absence of acetylcholine, the M-channel opens at resting membrane potential and dampens neuronal responsiveness to synaptic inputs. Acetylcholine inhibits M-channel activity by activation of Ml receptor. 

The debut of the selective AChR agonist (+)-anatoxin-a has provided a new tool for AChR physiology and pharmacology. (+)-Anatoxin not only has high affinity for the nicotinic AChR but it also has high selectivity for nicotinic over muscarinic receptors in the mammalian CNS. Recently, the use of (+)-anatoxin-a was essential to the identification of nicotinic receptors on cultured neurons (4), We are studying the features which allow it to bind with high affinity to the peripheral and central nicotinic receptors and the kinetic effects on receptor conformational... 

Figure 6.2 Diagrammatic representation of a cholinergic synapse. Some 80% of neuronal acetylcholine (ACh) is found in the nerve terminal or synaptosome and the remainder in the cell body or axon. Within the synaptosome it is almost equally divided between two pools, as shown. ACh is synthesised from choline, which has been taken up into the nerve terminal, and to which it is broken down again, after release, by acetylcholinesterase. Postsynaptically the nicotinic receptor is directly linked to the opening of Na+ channels and can be blocked by compounds like dihydro-jS-erythroidine (DH/IE). Muscarinic receptors appear to inhibit K+ efflux to increase cell activity. For full details see text...

Although ACh does not have a primary excitatory role like glutamate in the CNS, it does increase neuronal excitability and responsiveness, through activation of muscarinic receptors. It achieves this in two ways, both of which involve closure of K+ charmels (see Chapter 2 and Brown 1983 Brown et al. 1996). The first is a voltage-dependent K+ conductance called the M conductance, Gm or Im. It is activated by any... 

Few drugs, apart from nicotine itself, act specifically on nicotine receptors. One is methylcarbachol, which lacks the muscarinic effects of carbachol and another is dimethylphenylpiperazinium (DMPP), which appears to have some selectivity for the neuronal nicotinic receptor. Neither of them can cross the blood-brain barrier. 

In contrast to the nicotinic antagonists and indeed both nicotinic and muscarinic agonists, there are a number of muscarinic antagonists, like atropine, hyoscine (scopolamine) and benztropine, that readily cross the blood-brain barrier to produce central effects. Somewhat surprisingly, atropine is a central stimulant while hyoscine is sedative, as least in reasonable doses. This would be the expected effect of a drug that is blocking the excitatory effects of ACh on neurons but since the stimulant action of atropine can be reversed by an anticholinesterase it is still presumed to involve ACh in some way. Generally these compounds are effective in the control of motion but not other forms of sickness (especially hyoscine), tend to impair memory (Chapter 18) and reduce some of the symptoms of Parkinsonism (Chapter 15). 

The excitatory muscarinic receptors on GABA/ENK neurons are Mi but those on the GABA/SP neurons are probably M4 and inhibitory. A study of more specific Mi and M4 antagonists in PD therapy may be appropriate. 

Figure 17.7 Possible mechanism by which atypical neuroleptics with antimuscarinic activity produce few EPSs. Normally the inhibitory effects of DA released from nigrostriatal afferents on to striatal neuron D2 receptors is believed to balance the excitatory effect of ACh from intrinsic neurons acting on muscarinic (M2) receptors (a). Typical neuroleptics block the inhibitory effect of DA which leaves unopposed the excitatory effect of ACh (b) leading to the augmented activity of the striatal neurons and EPSs (see Fig. 15.2). An atypical neuroleptic with intrinsic antimuscarinic activity reduces this possibility by counteracting the excitatory effects of released ACh as well as the inhibitory effects of DA (c). Thus the control of striatal neurons remains balanced...

In fact, there is a good deal of evidence to support this suggestion. First, more than half the neurons in the PPT fire rhythmically only when PGO waves are evident and their firing starts immediately before the PGO waves appear. Second, in cats, REM sleep is augmented by direct injection of either carbachol, or more selective muscarinic agonists, or the anticholinesterase, neostigmine, into the pontine reticular formation (one of the projection sites for PPT). Third, REM sleep is abolished by lesion of the PPT nucleus but, interestingly, not by lesion of the LDT. 

As an example of dual a- and (5y-mediated effects, one might consider the inhibition of N-type Ca2+ currents in sympathetic neurons by acetylcholine (Figures 7.11 and 7.12 see also Hille, 1994). Acetylcholine inhibits these currents through two different muscarinic receptors (M, and M4), using two different G-protein pathways. 

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