Dopamine News and Research

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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.

Parkinson's-related mutations may also affect vision

The most common genetic cause of Parkinson's is not only responsible for the condition's distinctive movement problems but may also affect vision, according to new research by scientists at the University of York.

16 Feb 2013

Stress and mental illness: an interview with Professor Akira Sawa

As a psychiatrist I am interested in how stress may play a role in the pathology of adult mental disorders. You may know that most of the major mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, mood-disorder, substance abuse or even anxiety disorder, become prominent in early adulthood.

14 Feb 2013

Overexpression of alpha-synuclein can cause Parkinson's

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say overexpression of a protein called alpha-synuclein appears to disrupt vital recycling processes in neurons, starting with the terminal extensions of neurons and working its way back to the cells' center, with the potential consequence of progressive degeneration and eventual cell death.

10 Feb 2013

Drugs that target retromer pathway could help prevent or treat Parkinson's

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have identified a protein trafficking defect within brain cells that may underlie common non-familial forms of Parkinson's disease.

9 Feb 2013

Familial psychosis risk linked to prefrontal dopamine dysfunction

People at familial risk for psychosis have attenuated dopamine stress modulation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, according to a recent in vivo imaging study.

8 Feb 2013

Studies to identify molecular causes and preventive and therapeutic strategies for Parkinson's

On the fourth floor of Wichita State University's McKinley Hall, biochemistry professor Kandatege Wimalasena and his group of doctoral and undergraduate students are hard at work researching Parkinson's disease (PD) - the second-most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting 1 to 2 percent of people older than 60.

7 Feb 2013

Study supports hypothesis that disulfiram reduces drug consumption by blocking DβH

Disulfiram was the first medication approved for the treatment of alcoholism over 50 years ago. It works, at least in part, by preventing the metabolism of an alcohol by-product, acetaldehyde. High levels of acetaldehyde in the body quickly cause unpleasant symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, headache, and accelerated heart rate. Thus, disulfiram provides a very strong incentive to avoid drinking.

1 Feb 2013

Study illuminates the response of dopaminergic neurons to changes in temperature

While the wooly musk ox may like it cold, fruit flies definitely do not. They like it hot, or at least warm. In fact, their preferred optimum temperature is very similar to that of humans-76 degrees F.

31 Jan 2013

Social isolation increases risk of addiction to amphetamine and alcohol

Rats that are socially isolated during a critical period of adolescence are more vulnerable to addiction to amphetamine and alcohol, found researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. Amphetamine addiction is also harder to extinguish in the socially isolated rats.

24 Jan 2013

UB scientists propose first genomic explanation for schizophrenia

New University at Buffalo research demonstrates how defects in an important neurological pathway in early development may be responsible for the onset of schizophrenia later in life.

23 Jan 2013

Neurophysiologic mechanisms of deep-brain stimulation unveiled

The beneficial effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation in patients with Parkinson’s disease are partly down to compensatory activation of nonmotor dopamine pathways during exercise, research suggests.

22 Jan 2013

Possible connection between mitochondrial CYP2D6 and Parkinson's

With a new insight into a model of Parkinson's disease, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have identified a novel target for mitigating some of the disease's toll on the brain.

19 Jan 2013

Stress in adolescence can cause severe mental illness in young adulthood

Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence — a critical time for brain development — and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause severe mental illness in those predisposed to it.

18 Jan 2013

Dopamine synthesis increased in patients at high risk for psychosis

UK study results show that patients at ultra-high risk for psychosis have elevated dopamine synthesis capacity in the dorsal striatum.

17 Jan 2013

Reviva Pharmaceuticals completes enrollment in RP5063 phase 2 trial for schizophrenia

Reviva Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and development company, today announces completion of patient enrollment in the phase 2 clinical trial of RP5063 for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

16 Jan 2013

Vanderbilt University, AstraZeneca partner to identify candidate drugs for major brain diseases

Today, AstraZeneca and Vanderbilt University announced they have signed a research collaboration agreement to identify candidate drugs aimed at treating psychosis and other neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with major brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.

16 Jan 2013

Patients with Parkinson's develop artistic talents after dopamine-inducing therapy

Parkinson's experts across the world have been reporting a remarkable phenomenon - many patients treated with drugs to increase the activity of dopamine in the brain as a therapy for motor symptoms such as tremors and muscle rigidity are developing new creative talents, including painting, sculpting, writing, and more.

16 Jan 2013

Dopamine-related drug exposure, Parkinson's increase risk of impulse control problems

Parkinson's disease itself does not increase the risk of impulse control problems such as compulsive gambling and shopping that have been seen in people taking certain drugs for Parkinson's disease, according to new research published in the January 8, 2013, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

9 Jan 2013

Penn study suggests dopamine treatments may play role in increasing impulsivity

While approximately one in five Parkinson's disease patients experience impulse control disorder symptoms, the disease itself does not increase the risk of gambling, shopping, or other impulsivity symptoms, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

8 Jan 2013

Link between Parkinson's and benomyl

For several years, neurologists at UCLA have been building a case that a link exists between pesticides and Parkinson's disease. To date, paraquat, maneb and ziram - common chemicals sprayed in California's Central Valley and elsewhere - have been tied to increases in the disease, not only among farmworkers but in individuals who simply lived or worked near fields and likely inhaled drifting particles.

6 Jan 2013