Differential effects of allopregnanolone and diazepam on social behavior through modulation of neural oscillation dynamics in basolateral amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex.

Effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) have long been needed. One hypothesis for the mechanism of depression involves a decrease in neuroactive steroids such as allopregnanolone, an endogenous positive allosteric modulator of the γ-aminobutyric acid-gated chloride channel (GABA) receptor. In our previous study, we discovered that allopregnanolone, not diazepam, exhibited antidepressant-like effects in the social interaction test (SIT) of social defeat stress (SDS) model mice.

The antagonistic activity profile of naloxone in μ-opioid receptor agonist-induced psychological dependence.

Naloxone is a μ-opioid receptor antagonist that has been used to prevent overdose-related respiratory depression and deaths by the illicit use of opioids. Naloxone can also deter the abuse potential of opioids, but little has been reported regarding its antagonistic activity profile against opioid-induced psychological dependence. This study aimed to confirm the antagonistic activity profile of naloxone against several μ-opioid receptor agonists and investigate whether naloxone could affect the psychological dependence induced by widely used μ-opioid receptor agonist, oxycodone.

Radioadaptive response: efficient repair of radiation-induced DNA damage in adapted cells.

To verify the hypothesis that the induction of a novel, efficient repair mechanism for chromosomal DNA breaks may be involved in the radioadaptive response, the repair kinetics of DNA damage has been studied in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells with single-cell gel electrophoresis. The cells were adapted by priming exposure with 5 cGy of gamma-rays and 4-h incubation at 37 degrees C. There were no indication of any difference in the initial yields of DNA double-strand breaks induced by challenging doses from non-adapted cells and from adapted cells.