The present study indicates that pramipexole reduces the harmaline-induced tremor, which may suggest its beneficial effects in ET patients. However, mechanisms underlying its action are still unclear and need further examination.

Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common neurological disorders that often affects people in the prime of their lives, leading to a significant reduction in their quality of life, gradually making them unable to independently perform the simplest activities. Here we show that current ET pharmacotherapy often does not sufficiently alleviate disease symptoms and is completely ineffective in more than 30% of patients. At present, deep brain stimulation of the motor thalamus is the most effective ET treatment. However, like any brain surgery, it can cause many undesirable side effects; thus, it is only performed in patients with an advanced disease who are not responsive to drugs. Therefore, it seems extremely important to look for new strategies for treating ET. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on the pathomechanism of ET based on studies in animal models of the disease, as well as to present and discuss the results of research available to date on various substances affecting dopamine (mainly D3) or adenosine A1 receptors, which, due to their ability to modulate harmaline-induced tremor, may provide the basis for the development of new potential therapies for ET in the future.

This study suggests that adenosine A receptors may be a potential target for the treatment of essential tremor.

The present study suggests that the dopamine agonist apomorphine enhances the tremor induced by harmaline, and this effect is at least partly independent of hyperactivity.

The aim of this work was to compare mean concentrations of gonadotropins in serum and fluid from malignant and benign ovarian tumors. We enrolled 126 patients diagnosed with malignant epithelial tumors (n=40), borderline epithelial tumors (n ¼ 14), benign cystadenomas (n ¼ 28) and simple cysts (n ¼ 44) of the ovary. Premenopausal and postmenopausal subgroups were formed in each group. The concentration of FSH and LH was measured in serum and tumor fluid and the serum/tumor fluid ratio was calculated. The results in each group were compared and the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were determined.Mean concentrations of both gonadotropins in ovarian cancer fluid were significantly higher than in the remaining groups (P ranged from <0.005 to <0.0001). Mean serum/fluid ratios were lowest in ovarian cancer (FSH ¼ 2.91, LH ¼ 4.19).Our findings support the hypothesis that gonadotropins are involved in ovarian carcinogenesis and suggest that gonadotropin serum/tumor fluid ratios could be of value in the differential diagnosis of functional and organic cysts of the ovary.

Our recent study has indicated that a moderate lesion of the mesostriatal and mesolimbic pathways in rats, modelling preclinical stages of Parkinson’s disease, induces a depressive-like behaviour which is reversed by chronic treatment with pramipexole. The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signalling in the aforementioned model of depression. Therefore, we investigated the influence of 6-hydoxydopamine (6-OHDA) administration into the ventral region of the caudate-putamen on mRNA levels of BDNF and tropomyosin-related kinase B (trkB) receptor. The BDNF and trkB mRNA levels were determined in the nigrostriatal and limbic structures by in situ hybridization 2 weeks after the operation. Pramipexole (1 mg/kg sc twice a day) and imipramine (10 mg/kg ip once a day) were injected for 2 weeks. The lesion lowered the BDNF and trkB mRNA levels in the hippocampus [CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus (DG)] and amygdala (basolateral/lateral) as well as the BDNF mRNA content in the habenula (medial/lateral). The lesion did not influence BDNF and trkB expression in the caudate-putamen, substantia nigra, nucleus accumbens (shell and core) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). Chronic imipramine reversed the lesion-induced decreases in BDNF mRNA in the DG. Chronic pramipexole increased BDNF mRNA, but decreased trkB mRNA in the VTA in lesioned rats. Furthermore, it reduced BDNF and trkB mRNA expression in the shell and core of the nucleus accumbens, BDNF mRNA in the amygdala and trkB mRNA in the caudate-putamen in these animals. The present study indicates that both the 6-OHDA-induced dopaminergic lesion and chronic pramipexole influence BDNF signalling in limbic structures, which may be related to their pro-depressive and antidepressant activity in rats, respectively.

High FSH and LH levels in cyst fluid of malignant epithelial tumors of the ovary are in line with the gonadotropin theory of tumor growth. Simultaneous determination of various types inhibin levels appears to be an interesting topic for our future research.

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