Buspirone, a novel psychotropic anxioselective agent, produced a dose-dependent decrease in the level of acetylcholine in the striatum of the rat. The maximum effect of about 25-30% was produced at the dose of 20 mg kg-1. A smaller decrease of 10% was also found in the n. accumbens-olfactory tubercle while other brain regions were unaffected. The drug did not alter striatal choline acetyltransferase or acetylcholinesterase activities and was feeble in displacing [3H]dexetimide from its specific muscarinic binding sites. The effect of buspirone in lowering acetylcholine content was more marked and longer lasting in the striatum of female than male rats. Buspirone proved to be weak as a blocker of the dopamine receptor agonist, apomorphine, and it appears that only a small proportion of the decrease in striatal acetylcholine content can be attributed to the blockade of dopamine receptors. Rapid homologous tolerance to an acute challenge with buspirone on striatal acetylcholine was achieved within seven days of its chronic administration, and, unlike clozapine, a cross tolerance of buspirone to chronic haloperidol treatment was also observed. Other data indicating that the drug differed from haloperidol both qualitatively and quantitatively on dopaminergic neurochemical parameters, and the fact that it is not cataleptogenic, suggest that buspirone cannot be considered a typical neuroleptic agent. The possibility that buspirone may act as an agonist at certain presynaptic dopamine receptors, which could translate into a fall in striatal acetylcholine content, is discussed.
A therapeutic trial with two different lecithins, with 32 and 7% phosphatidylcholine respectively, was performed for 3 months on 11 patients with clinical diagnosis of dominant, recessive and sporadic olivopontocerebellar atrophies. The correlation between plasma choline levels and the clinical picture shows a clinical worsening with very high choline levels and a slight improvement with smaller increases of plasma choline levels. The possible role in these disorders of phosphatidylcholine and linoleic acid – both present in lecithin – is discussed, with relationship to these findings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.