Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The pre-test administration of beta-endorphin (0.05 microgram/mouse), oxotremorine sesquifumarate (5.0 micrograms/mouse), or beta-endorphin plus oxotremorine enhanced retention test performance of a conditioned emotional response in mice. The effects were blocked by scopolamine. Scopolamine had no effect of its own. The data suggest that the retention enhancement caused by beta-endorphin may involve the secondary activation of cholinergic mechanisms.
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PMID:Retention enhancement by pre-test beta-endorphin and oxotremorine and its reversal by scopolamine. 284 8

Ten physically healthy inpatients of mixed diagnosis received, in a randomized, counterbalanced double-blind paradigm, physostigmine (22 micrograms/kg) and neostigmine (11 micrograms/kg). Infusions were separated by at least 2 days. The differential effects of physostigmine and neostigmine on plasma concentrations of cortisol, prolactin, growth hormone, ACTH, beta-endorphin/beta-lipotropin-like immunoreactivity, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine are reported. Administration of physostigmine, unlike that of neostigmine, was associated with statistically significant increases in plasma concentrations of cortisol, prolactin, ACTH, beta-endorphin/beta-lipotropin-like immunoreactivity, and epinephrine, presumably via central mechanisms. In a separate study, 15 subjects, mostly depressed inpatients, were pretreated with methscopolamine (0.75 mg) on one day and scopolamine (0.5 mg) on another day, at least 2 days apart, in a randomized, counterbalanced double blind paradigm and subsequently on each day received physostigmine (22 micrograms/kg). Scopolamine significantly attenuated the physostigmine-associated increase in plasma concentrations of cortisol, growth hormone, prolactin, ACTH, and dopamine compared to methscopolamine, and a close-to-significant attenuation of epinephrine as well. These results provide further evidence that physostigmine's effects on plasma concentrations of pituitary hormones and epinephrine occur via central mechanisms and are muscarinically mediated.
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PMID:Central and peripheral cholinesterase inhibition: effects on anterior pituitary and sympathomimetic function. 301 22

We examined the role of the hippocampal cholinergic system, which is known to mediate processes related to fear and anxiety, in the regulation of stress-induced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity. Bilateral intra-hippocampal injections (30 microg per side) of the muscarinic antagonist Scopolamine augmented adrenocorticotropin and corticosterone responses to restraint without altering basal HPA activity compared to vehicle-treated animals. These results suggest that the hippocampal cholinergic system regulates stress-induced HPA activity and may serve to coordinate behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress.
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PMID:Hippocampal cholinergic blockade enhances hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal responses to stress. 935 9

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has differential physiological activity in male and female animals (sexual diergism). Central cholinergic systems stimulate this endocrine axis. In the present study we investigated muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic influences on HPA axis activity in male and female rats by pretreatment with selective cholinergic receptor antagonists followed by stimulation with physostigmine (PHYSO), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Hormonal measures were plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and corticosterone (CORT). Male rats had significantly greater AVP and ACTH responses to PHYSO alone than did females. Scopolamine (SCOP) enhanced the AVP response to PHYSO to a greater extent in males than in females. In contrast, mecamylamine (MEC) enhanced the AVP response in females but decreased it in males. SCOP potentiated, and MEC inhibited, the stimulatory effect of PHYSO on ACTH in both sexes, but SCOP potentiation was greater in males, and MEC inhibition was greater in females. Absolute CORT increases following PHYSO were greater in females, but percent increases over baseline were greater in males. Similar to their effects on ACTH responses, MEC attenuated, and SCOP enhanced, CORT responses to PHYSO. These results suggest that cholinergic receptor subtypes may influence HPA axis activity differentially in male and female rats.
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PMID:Sexual diergism in rat hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to cholinergic stimulation and antagonism. 1122 19