Stimulation of Dopamine D4 Receptors in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell Increases Palatable Food Intake in Satiated Male Rats: Modulation by NMDA and AMPA Receptors.

Background/objectives: Palatability significantly influences food consumption, often leading to overeating and obesity by activating the brain's reward systems. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays a central role in this process, modulating reward mechanisms primarily via dopamine through D2-like receptors (D2R, D3R, D4R). While the involvement of D2 receptors in feeding is well-documented, the role of D4 receptors (D4Rs) is less clear.

Ecoepidemiology of Chagas Disease in a Biological Corridor in Southeastern Mexico: A Promising Approach to Understand the Risk of Chagas Disease.

Ecoepidemiology is an emerging field that attempts to explain how biotic, environmental, and even social factors influence the dynamics of infectious diseases. Particularly in vector-borne diseases, the study under this approach offers us an overview of the pathogens, vectors, and hosts that coexist in a given region and their ecological determinants. As a result of this, risk predictions can be established in a changing environment and how it may impact human populations.

Identification of Discrete Typing Units of Isolated from Domestic Environments in Southeastern Mexico.

The parasite is the causal agent of Chagas disease, recognized by the World Health Organization as a neglected tropical disease. Currently there are seven discrete typing units (DTUs) of distributed in America, but there are still gaps about its distribution in some endemic regions. Seventeen units isolated from Chiapas and Oaxaca in Mexico were identified by amplification of the C-5 sterol desaturase gene.

What Do You Need to Know before Studying Chagas Disease? A Beginner's Guide.

Chagas disease is one of the most important tropical infections in the world and mainly affects poor people. The causative agent is the hemoflagellate protozoan , which circulates among insect vectors and mammals throughout the Americas. A large body of research on Chagas disease has shown the complexity of this zoonosis, and controlling it remains a challenge for public health systems.

Mini-exon gene reveals circulation of TcI (Chagas, 1909) (Kinetoplastida, Trypanosomatidae) in bats and small mammals in an ecological reserve in southeastern Mexico.

A wide variety of mammals are involved in the sylvatic cycle of , the causative agent of Chagas disease. In many areas in Latin America where is endemic, this cycle is poorly known, and its main reservoirs have not been identified. In this study we analyzed infection in bats and other small mammals from an Ecological Reserve in southeastern Mexico.

Effect of heat treatment on oxalate and hydrocyanic acid levels of malanga corms of two cultivars ( and ) in a murine model.

and contain high levels of nutrients; but have naturally toxic compounds, oxalates and hydrocyanic acid (HCN). The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of heat treatment on the concentration of antinutrients in malanga corms and its effect on mice. Malanga samples were heated to a boil for 0 to 120 min; oxalates and HCN were determined by spectrophotometry, at 710 and 510 nm, respectively.

A Trypanosoma cruzi strain from southern Mexico is more virulent for male mice in part by blocking the immune response.

Introduction: Chagas disease is a neglected disease in the American continent. The southern Mexican state of Chiapas has the highest incidence rate of Chagas disease in the country. The disease, mainly caused by Tripanosoma cruzi in Mexico, is more prevalent in males than in females but the scientific basis for the sex-related tropism is not completely understood.

Trypanosoma cruzi: A review of biological and methodological factors in Mexican strains.

Trypanosoma cruzi, responsible for Chagas disease, is a serious public health problem in Latin America with eight million people infected in the world. Clinical manifestations observed in humans due to T. cruzi infection are largely associated with the wide biological and genetic heterogeneity of the parasite.