Acetylcholine demixes heterogeneous dopamine signals for learning and moving.

Midbrain dopamine neurons promote reinforcement learning and movement vigor. A major outstanding question is how dopamine-recipient neurons in the striatum parse these heterogeneous signals. Here we characterized dopamine and acetylcholine release in the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) of rats performing a decision-making task.

Symptom Management and Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients Using Acupuncture-Related Therapies and Herbal Medicine: A Scoping Review.

The side effects associated with breast cancer treatments often reduce the patients' quality of life. The effectiveness of acupuncture-related therapies and herbal medicine in managing the side effect is not fully understood. The study included clinical studies published in the 10 years since 2011 and analyzed the effectiveness of the therapies for managing side effects of anticancer treatment.

A Comparison of Dopaminergic and Cholinergic Populations Reveals Unique Contributions of VTA Dopamine Neurons to Short-Term Memory.

We systematically compare the contributions of two dopaminergic and two cholinergic ascending populations to a spatial short-term memory task in rats. In ventral tegmental area dopamine (VTA-DA) and nucleus basalis cholinergic (NB-ChAT) populations, trial-by-trial fluctuations in activity during the delay period relate to performance with an inverted-U, despite the fact that both populations have low activity during that time. Transient manipulations reveal that only VTA-DA neurons, and not the other three populations we examine, contribute causally and selectively to short-term memory.

Specialized coding of sensory, motor and cognitive variables in VTA dopamine neurons.

There is increased appreciation that dopamine neurons in the midbrain respond not only to reward and reward-predicting cues, but also to other variables such as the distance to reward, movements and behavioural choices. An important question is how the responses to these diverse variables are organized across the population of dopamine neurons. Whether individual dopamine neurons multiplex several variables, or whether there are subsets of neurons that are specialized in encoding specific behavioural variables remains unclear.

Combined Treatment for Lung Metastasis from Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Case Report.

The survival rate of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and extrahepatic metastases is very poor. Sorafenib, a targeted chemotherapy agent, has been shown effective for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but it is associated with serious side effects. In addition, although surgery has been regarded as effective for lung metastases from HCC, its use in these patients is limited.

Combined Social and Spatial Coding in a Descending Projection from the Prefrontal Cortex.

Social behaviors are crucial to all mammals. Although the prelimbic cortex (PL, part of medial prefrontal cortex) has been implicated in social behavior, it is not clear which neurons are relevant or how they contribute. We found that PL contains anatomically and molecularly distinct subpopulations that target three downstream regions that have been implicated in social behavior: the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, and ventral tegmental area.

SH003 enhances paclitaxel chemosensitivity in MCF-7/PAX breast cancer cells through inhibition of MDR1 activity.

Paclitaxel is an anti-cancer drug for treating cancer, but paclitaxel resistance is reported in cancer cells. Multidrug resistance (MDR) is related with the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) mechanism, which plays a key role in cancer metastasis. Moreover, EMT mechanism is connected to tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer cells.