Wrinkles, one of the most common signs of aging, are primarily caused by the continuous contraction of muscles. Muscle contraction is induced by the binding of acetylcholine (ACh), released at the neuromuscular junction, to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) present on the muscle cell surface. In this study, we aimed to develop a wrinkle-improving peptide that inhibits the binding of ACh to nAChR using peptide phage display technology. Our peptide showed a remarkably high binding affinity to nAChR subunit α1, with a value below 1 µM, and was found to inhibit the action of ACh through its interaction with these receptors. Furthermore, it increased collagen synthesis in skin cells and upregulated the expression of the aquaporin-3 (AQP3) and hyaluronan synthase-2 (HAS2) genes. These results confirm that the peptide effectively inhibits muscle contraction and enhances skin elasticity and hydration, contributing to its wrinkle-reducing effects. Clinical studies on humans observed significant improvement in wrinkles after three weeks of use, with substantial reduction observed after six weeks. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate the efficacy of the peptide (named Medipep) in reducing wrinkles.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms25147860 | DOI Listing |
ACS Chem Neurosci
January 2025
Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Division of Molecular Therapeutics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, United States.
Voluntary movement, motivation, and reinforcement learning depend on the activity of ventral midbrain neurons, which extend axons to release dopamine (DA) in the striatum. These neurons exhibit two patterns of action potential activity: low-frequency tonic activity that is intrinsically generated and superimposed high-frequency phasic bursts that are driven by synaptic inputs. acute striatal brain preparations are widely employed to study the regulation of evoked DA release but exhibit very different DA release kinetics than recordings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNaunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol
January 2025
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, India.
Neuropathic pain, a challenging condition often associated with diabetes, trauma, or chemotherapy, impairs patients' quality of life. Current treatments often provide inconsistent relief and notable adverse effects, highlighting the urgent need for safer and more effective alternatives. This review investigates marine-derived bioactive compounds as potential novel therapies for neuropathic pain management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNicotine Tob Res
January 2025
Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
Introduction: Varenicline is an α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist with the highest therapeutic efficacy of any pharmacological smoking cessation aid and a 12-month cessation rate of 26%. Genetic variation may be associated with varenicline response, but to date no genome-wide association studies of varenicline response have been published.
Methods: In this study, we investigated the genetic contribution to varenicline effectiveness using two electronic health record-derived phenotypes.
Objectives: The current gold standard for immunofluorescent (IF) visualization of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) in muscle utilizes frozen tissue sections with fluorescent conjugated antibodies to demarcate neurons and IF alpha-bungarotoxin (α-BTX) to demarcate motor endplates. Frozen tissue sectioning comes with inherent inescapable limitations, including cryosectioning artifact and limited sample shelf-life. However, a parallel approach to identify NMJs in paraffin-embedded tissue sections has not been previously described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Vet Res
December 2024
Division of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 10-748 Olsztyn, Poland.
Introduction: Endometritis is a very common pathology in animals which changes endometrial leukotriene (LT) formation and muscarinic 2 and 3 receptor subtypes (M2R/M3R) and α-7 nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptor (α-7 nAChR) expression patterns. With the relationship between ACh, its receptors and LT production remaining unclear, the role of M2R, M3R and α-7 nAChR in action of ACh on the 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO), LTA4 hydrolase (LTAH) and LTC4 synthase (LTCS) protein abundances in the inflamed porcine endometrium and on the tissue secretion of LTB4 and LTC4 were studied.
Material And Methods: On day three of the oestrous cycle in gilts aged 7-8 months, 50 mL of either saline solution (control group, n = 5) or an suspension at 10 colony-forming units/mL ( group, n = 5), was injected into each uterine horn.
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