Selective Cholinergic Depletion of Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus Aggravates Freezing of Gait in Parkinsonian Rats.  Xiao, H, Li, M, Cai, J, et al. (2017). Neurosci Lett [Epub 10 August 2017]. PMID: 28803956 Many patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease suffer from gait and postural impairments.  The authors used Anti-ChAT-SAP (Cat. #IT-42) to specifically lesion neurons in the Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus (PPTg) to examine the […]

Blocking microglial pannexin-1 channels alleviates morphine withdrawal in rodents.  Burma, N.E., R.P. Bonin, H. Leduc-Pessah, et al.  Nat Med, 2017. 23(3): p. 355-360. PMID: 28134928 The authors investigated the mechanisms underlying opiate withdrawal in rat.  Depletion of spinal lumbar microglia by intrathecal injections of Mac-1–SAP (Cat. #IT-33; 20 mcg) decreased withdrawal behaviors and attenuated the severity of

The rostromedial tegmental nucleus and alcohol addiction. Ye J-H, Fu R, He W. (2017). Impact Journals. 2017;8(12):18624-18625. The authors discuss their work (1) with Dermorphin-SAP (Cat. #IT-12) and their demonstration that damage of RMTg MOR-expressing GABAergic neurons by Dermorphin-SAP increased the intake and preference for alcohol, boosted the expression and slowed down the extinction of alcohol

Acute Effects of Alcohol on Sleep Are Mediated by Components of Homeostatic Sleep Regulatory System: An Editorial Highlight for ‘Lesions of the Basal Forebrain Cholinergic Neurons Attenuates Sleepiness and Adenosine after Alcohol Consumption.’ Alam, MN, & McGinty, D. (2017). J Neurochem 2017/07/25. In the study, titled ‘Lesions of the basal forebrain cholinergic neurons attenuates sleepiness and

Validation and Characterization of a Novel Method for Selective Vagal Deafferentation of the Gut. Diepenbroek C, Quinn D, Stephens R, Zollinger B, Anderson S, Pan A, de Lartigue G. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 2017. PMID: 28705805 The authors Injected CCK-SAP (Cat. #IT-31) into the nodose ganglia (NG) of rats to specifically ablate GI‐VAN

ATS is in Booth 114 at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London this week. Did you know that table tennis is widely reported to be an effective therapy for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease? This was news to us, but made us even more happy for ATS associates to be playing every Friday afternoon. Check

Cholinergic input to the hippocampus is not required for episodic memory in the rat, even with multiple consecutive events.S. Seel, M.J. Eacott, A. Easton. Behav Brain Res 2017. PMID: 28601587   The authors use 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01) to examine episodic memory. Continual trials versions of an episodic memory task are unimpaired by cholinergic lesions of the medial septum. In contrast continual

Sonic Hedgehog and TDP-43 Participate in the Spontaneous Locomotor Recovery in a Mouse Model of Spinal Motoneuron Disease.  Rosario Gulino *, Rosalba Parenti and Massimo Gulisano J. Funct. Morphol. Kinesiol. 2017, 2(2), 11; doi:10.3390/jfmk2020011 The authors used a mouse model of neurotoxic motoneuron depletion to study the role of Sonic hedgehog and TDP-43 in the compensatory changes occurring

Role of A5 noradrenergic neurons in the chemoreflex control of respiratory and sympathetic activities in unanesthetized conditions. Camilia L Taxini, Thiago S Moreira, Ana C Takakura, Daniel B Zoccal. Neuroscience 354:146-157, 2017. PMID: 28461215 The authors utilize Anti-DBH-SAP (Cat. #IT-03) to investigate the involvement of the A5 noradrenergic neurons to the basal and chemoreflex control of the sympathetic

Targeting Cholinergic Neurons with 192-IgG-SAP Lee et al. examined the effects of chronic stress on changes in spatial learning and underlying molecular signaling induced by cholinergic depletion. Previous studies revealed that loss of cholinergic input to the hippocampus reduces the expression of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and activates nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling through interactions with