Bitter tastants alter gastric-phase postprandial haemodynamics.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Since Greco-Roman times bitter tastants have been used in Europe to treat digestive disorders, yet no pharmacological mechanism has been identified which can account for this practice. This study investigates whether the bitter tastants, gentian root (Gentian lutea L.) and wormwood herb (Artemisia absinthium L.

Motor and cognitive advantages persist 12 months after exenatide exposure in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Data from an open label randomised controlled trial have suggested possible advantages on both motor and non-motor measures in patients with Parkinson's disease following 12 months exposure to exenatide.

Objective: Continued follow up of these same patients was performed to investigate whether these possible advantages persisted in the prolonged absence of this medication.

Methods: All participants from an open label, randomised controlled trial of exenatide as a treatment for Parkinson's disease, were invited for a further follow up assessment at the UCL Institute of Neurology.

Exenatide and the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND. There is increasing interest in methods to more rapidly and cost-efficiently investigate drugs that are approved for clinical use in the treatment of another condition. Exenatide is a type 2 diabetes treatment that has been shown to have neuroprotective/neurorestorative properties in preclinical models of neurodegeneration.

Neuroprotection by Exendin-4 Is GLP-1 Receptor Specific but DA D3 Receptor Dependent, Causing Altered BrdU Incorporation in Subventricular Zone and Substantia Nigra.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) activation by exendin-4 (EX-4) is effective in preclinical models of Parkinson's disease (PD) and appears to promote neurogenesis even in severely lesioned rats. In the present study, we determined the effects of EX-4 on cellular BrdU incorporation in the rat subventricular zone (SVZ) and substantia nigra (SN). We also determined the specificity of this effect with the GLP-1R antagonist EX-(9-39) as well as the potential role of dopamine (DA) D3 receptors.

Exendin-4 reverses biochemical and behavioral deficits in a pre-motor rodent model of Parkinson's disease with combined noradrenergic and serotonergic lesions.

Research on Parkinson's disease (PD) has mainly focused on the degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons of nigro-striatal pathway; however, post-mortem studies have demonstrated that other brain regions such as the locus coeruleus (LC) and raphe nuclei (RN) are significantly affected as well. Degeneration of these crucial neuronal cell bodies may be responsible for depressive behavior and cognitive decline present in the pre-motor stage of PD. We have thus set out to create a pre-motor rodent model of PD which mimics the early stages of the condition.