Dopamine News and Research RSS Feed - Dopamine News and Research

Dopamine is a hormone and neurotransmitter occurring in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In the brain, this phenethylamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating the five types of dopamine receptors — D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5, and their variants. Dopamine is produced in several areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. Dopamine is also a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Its main function as a hormone is to inhibit the release of prolactin from the anterior lobe of the pituitary. Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, motor activity, motivation and reward, inhibition of prolactin production (involved in lactation), sleep, mood, attention, and learning. Dopaminergic neurons (i.e., neurons whose primary neurotransmitter is dopamine) are present chiefly in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain, substantia nigra pars compacta, and arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.
St. Jude Medical gets European CE Mark approval for deep brain stimulation systems

St. Jude Medical gets European CE Mark approval for deep brain stimulation systems

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced European CE Mark approval of its Brio, Libra and LibraXP deep brain stimulation systems for managing the symptoms of intractable primary and secondary dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that causes a person's muscles to contract and involuntarily spasm, reducing the ability to control movement. [More]
Researchers develop new imaging system for mouse brain studies

Researchers develop new imaging system for mouse brain studies

Setting a mouse free to roam might alarm most people, but not so for nuclear imaging researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Maryland who have developed a new imaging system for mouse brain studies. [More]
REFRESH study: RP5063 shows promise for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

REFRESH study: RP5063 shows promise for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

Reviva Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and development company, today announces top-line results from REFRESH, a phase 2 clinical trial of RP5063 for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. [More]
Nine Nobel laureates to present their research at American Chemical Society meeting

Nine Nobel laureates to present their research at American Chemical Society meeting

At least nine Nobel laureates have research that will be presented here this week during the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. [More]
Research findings shed light on molecular processes involved in initial stages of PD

Research findings shed light on molecular processes involved in initial stages of PD

In a mouse model of early Parkinson's disease, animals displayed movement deficits, loss of tyrosine-hydroxylase (TH)-positive fibers in the striatum, and astro-gliosis and micro-gliosis in the substantia nigra (SN), without the loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons. [More]
Data shows efficacy of MANF in neuroprotection 6-hydroxydopamine rat models of Parkinson's disease

Data shows efficacy of MANF in neuroprotection 6-hydroxydopamine rat models of Parkinson's disease

Amarantus BioScience, Inc., a biotechnology company discovering and developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases associated with neurodegeneration and apoptosis, today reported positive preclinical data for its lead therapeutic MANF in neuroprotection 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rat models of Parkinson's disease. [More]
Smokers trying to quit will have better experience with varenicline, study finds

Smokers trying to quit will have better experience with varenicline, study finds

Smokers have a higher probability of quitting smoking and a better overall cessation experience when taking varenicline compared to bupropion and to placebo - unmedicated assisted smoking cessation -according to a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. [More]
Researchers re-programme other cells to become nerve cells, directly in the brain

Researchers re-programme other cells to become nerve cells, directly in the brain

The field of cell therapy, which aims to form new cells in the body in order to cure disease, has taken another important step in the development towards new treatments. [More]
Study shows why certain drugs that interact with serotonin receptors have harmful effects

Study shows why certain drugs that interact with serotonin receptors have harmful effects

A team including scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has determined and analyzed the high-resolution atomic structures of two kinds of human serotonin receptor. [More]

Parkinson's Disease drug can help reverse age-related impairments in decision making: Study

A drug widely used to treat Parkinson's Disease can help to reverse age-related impairments in decision making in some older people, a study from researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging has shown. [More]
Promising studies for Parkinson's to be presented at 65th AAN meeting

Promising studies for Parkinson's to be presented at 65th AAN meeting

Three studies released today present possible positive news for people with Parkinson's disease. The studies, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013, report on treatments for blood pressure problems, the wearing-off that can occur when people have taken the main drug for Parkinson's for a long time, and for people early in the disease whose symptoms are not well-controlled by their main drugs. [More]

Antipsychotic drugs associated with increased risk of stroke in the elderly

Antipsychotic administration in the elderly is associated with an increased risk for cerebrovascular accident, more commonly known as stroke; a new study published in Biological Psychiatry provides additional insight into this important relationship. [More]

Researchers develop new approach to screening potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease

According to a 2012 World Health Organization report, over 35 million people worldwide currently have dementia, a number that is expected to double by 2030 (66 million) and triple by 2050 (115 million). [More]
Scientists pinpoint neural basis for stress-related relapse in rat models

Scientists pinpoint neural basis for stress-related relapse in rat models

All too often, stress turns addiction recovery into relapse, but years of basic brain research have provided scientists with insight that might allow them develop a medicine to help. A new study in the journal Neuron pinpoints the neural basis for stress-related relapse in rat models to an unprecedented degree. [More]
Researchers discover how LRRK2 mutations in familial Parkinson's damage brain cells

Researchers discover how LRRK2 mutations in familial Parkinson's damage brain cells

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), with collaborators at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson's disease damage brain cells. [More]

New NIH collaborative initiative aims to accelerate search for biomarkers in Parkinson's

Last month, the National Institutes of Health announced a new collaborative initiative that aims to accelerate the search for biomarkers -- changes in the body that can be used to predict, diagnose or monitor a disease -- in Parkinson's disease, in part by improving collaboration among researchers and helping patients get involved in clinical studies. [More]

Positive results from NeuroDerm ND0612 Phase I trial on Parkinson's

NeuroDerm, Ltd. announced today the results of a Phase I safety and pharmacokinetic trial of ND0612, a novel drug formulation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. [More]
Researchers discover how LRRK2 mutations in familial Parkinson's damage brain cells

Researchers discover how LRRK2 mutations in familial Parkinson's damage brain cells

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson's disease damage brain cells. [More]
Otsuka receives FDA approval for ABILIFY MAINTENA to treat schizophrenia

Otsuka receives FDA approval for ABILIFY MAINTENA to treat schizophrenia

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka) and H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ABILIFY MAINTENA (aripiprazole) for extended- release injectable suspension, an intramuscular (IM) depot formulation indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia. [More]
Junk food during pregnancy changes development of opioid signaling pathway in the baby's brain

Junk food during pregnancy changes development of opioid signaling pathway in the baby's brain

Here's another reason why a healthy diet during pregnancy is critical to the future health of your children: New research published in the March 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal, suggests that pregnant mothers who consume junk food actually cause changes in the development of the opioid signaling pathway in the brains of their unborn children. [More]