Dopamine D2-agonist Rotigotine effects on cortical excitability and central cholinergic transmission in Alzheimer's disease patients
| Autor: | Alessandro Martorana, Giacomo Koch, Francesco Di Lorenzo, Giorgio Bernardi, Zaira Esposito, Temistocle Lo Giudice, Carlo Caltagirone |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Agonist
Tetrahydronaphthalenes medicine.drug_class Aged Alzheimer Disease Cerebral Cortex Cholinergic Neurons Dopamine Agonists Dose-Response Relationship Drug GABAergic Neurons Humans Middle Aged Neural Inhibition Neuronal Plasticity Nootropic Agents Receptors Dopamine D2 Single-Blind Method Synaptic Transmission Thiophenes Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Transdermal Patch Dopamine agonist NO Dose-Response Relationship Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience chemistry.chemical_compound Dopamine receptor D3 Dopamine Dopamine receptor D2 Receptors Dopamine D2 medicine Neurotransmitter Pharmacology Dopaminergic Rotigotine chemistry Settore MED/26 - Neurologia Drug Psychology Neuroscience medicine.drug |
| Popis: | Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in several brain functions ranging from emotions control, movement organization to memory formation. It is also involved in the regulation of mechanisms of synaptic plasticity. However, its role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis is still puzzling. Several recent line of research instead indicates a clear role for dopamine in both amyloid β formation as well as in cognitive decline progression. In particular it has been shown that dopamine D₂-like receptors (namely D₃ and D₂) could be mostly responsible for dopamine dysfunction in AD. Here we aimed to study the effects of the dopamine agonist Rotigotine on cortical excitability and on central cholinergic transmission in cases of AD. Rotigotine is a dopamine agonist with a pharmacological profile with high affinity for D₃ and D₂ receptors. We used paired pulse protocols assessing short intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) to asses cortical excitability over the primary motor cortex and Short Latency Afferent Inhibition (SLAI) protocols, to verify the effects of the drug on central cholinergic transmission in a group of AD patients compared to age-matched controls. We observed that rotigotine induces unexpected changes in both cortical excitability (increased) and central cholinergic transmission (restored) of AD patients. These unexpected effects might depend on the dopamine D₂-like receptors dysfunction previously described in AD brains. The current findings could indicate that future strategies aimed to ameliorate symptoms of the related AD cognitive decline could also involve some dopaminergic drugs. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Cognitive Enhancers'. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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