Regional distribution of unbound eletriptan and sumatriptan in the CNS and PNS in rats: implications for a potential central action.

Background: Triptans are potent 5-HT receptor agonists used in migraine therapy, thought to act through peripheral mechanisms. It remains unclear whether triptans cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) sufficiently to stimulate central 5-HT receptors. This study investigates the disposition of eletriptan and sumatriptan in central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS) regions and predicts regional 5-HT receptor occupancies at clinically relevant concentrations.

The putative proton-coupled organic cation antiporter is involved in uptake of triptans into human brain capillary endothelial cells.

Background: Triptans are anti-migraine drugs with a potential central site of action. However, it is not known to what extent triptans cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The aim of this study was therefore to determine if triptans pass the brain capillary endothelium and investigate the possible underlying mechanisms with focus on the involvement of the putative proton-coupled organic cation (H/OC) antiporter.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (BIONi010-C) generate tight cell monolayers with blood-brain barrier traits and functional expression of large neutral amino acid transporter 1 (SLC7A5).

The barrier properties of the brain capillary endothelium, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) restricts uptake of most small and all large molecule drug compounds to the CNS. There is a need for predictive human in vitro models of the BBB to enable studies of brain drug delivery. Here, we investigated whether human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line (BIONi010-C) could be differentiated to brain capillary endothelial- like cells (BCEC) and evaluated their potential use in drug delivery studies.

Physical stream quality measured by drones and image analysis versus the traditional manual method.

Information on the physical and ecological state of streams along with an overview of the need for maintenance is traditionally a time-consuming manual field task with subsequent limitations in area coverage. Here we propose a novel approach to stream monitoring and management using a low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform to collect data comparable to that from traditional monitoring schemes. This technology provides high-resolution imagery while being easy to implement at a low cost along with providing data that represent the stream in both fine-scale and at landscape scale.

Universal mechanisms of sound production and control in birds and mammals.

As animals vocalize, their vocal organ transforms motor commands into vocalizations for social communication. In birds, the physical mechanisms by which vocalizations are produced and controlled remain unresolved because of the extreme difficulty in obtaining in vivo measurements. Here, we introduce an ex vivo preparation of the avian vocal organ that allows simultaneous high-speed imaging, muscle stimulation and kinematic and acoustic analyses to reveal the mechanisms of vocal production in birds across a wide range of taxa.