Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P01178 (oxytocin)
 15,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

3-Carbomethoxypyridine (CMP) was isolated and characterized from the leaves of Pyrenacantha staudtii Hutch and Dalz, family Icacinaceae, in our earlier study and was found to possess an inhibitory activity on the isolated rat uterus. In order to study the structure - activity relationship, derivatives of CMP were obtained synthetically, purified and characterized by spectroscopic techniques such as infra red spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H- and 13C-NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS). The synthesized compounds were subjected to pharmacological testing using isolated rat uterine preparation in oestrus suspended in an organ bath containing De Jalon physiological salt solution (PSS). The force of contraction was recorded via an isometric transducer connected to an Ugo Basile recorder. The effects of these two compounds were compared with salbutamol as a positive control. 3-Carboethoxypyridine (ECP) demonstrated very significant (p < 0.005) inhibitory activity on the uterus with a total elimination of the spontaneous contractility at a dose of 0.4 mg/mL. Carbobutoxypyridine (BCP) also demonstrated a marked reduction of oxytocin-induced contractions and elimination of spontaneous activity. The study lends support to the potential use of these agents as tocolytics.
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PMID:Inhibitory effect of 3-carboethoxypyridine and 3-carbobutoxypyridine on isolated rat uterus. 1766 69

Deficits in empathy have been proposed to constitute a hallmark of several psychiatric disturbances like conduct disorder, antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders. Limited sensitivity to punishment, shallow or deficient affect and reduced physiological reactivity to environmental stressors have been often reported to co-occur with limited empathy and contribute to the onset of antisocial phenotypes. Empathy in its simplest form (i.e. emotional contagion) is addressed in preclinical models through the evaluation of the social transmission of emotional states: mice exposed to a painful stimulus display a higher response if in the presence of a familiar individual experiencing a higher degree of discomfort, than in isolation. In the present study, we investigated whether a reduction of emotional contagion can be considered a predictor of reduced sociality, sensitivity to punishment and physiological stress reactivity. To this aim, we first evaluated emotional contagion in a group of Balb/cJ mice and then discretised their values in four quartiles. The upper (i.e. Emotional Contagion Prone, ECP) and the lower (i.e. Emotional Contagion Resistant, ECR) quartiles constituted the experimental groups. Our results indicate that mice in the lower quartile are characterized by reduced sociability, impaired memory of negative events and dampened hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical reactivity to external stressors. Furthermore, in the absence of changes in oxytocin receptor density, we show that these mice exhibit elevated concentrations of oxytocin and vasopressin and reduced density of BDNF receptors in behaviourally-relevant brain areas. Thus, not only do present results translate to the preclinical investigation of psychiatric disturbances, but also they can contribute to the study of emotional contagion in terms of its adaptive significance.
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PMID:Low empathy-like behaviour in male mice associates with impaired sociability, emotional memory, physiological stress reactivity and variations in neurobiological regulations. 2920 Apr 28