“…Experimental and preclinical evidence suggested that substance P is involved in several neurological diseases, including degeneration of human motoneurons (Vacca-Galloway and Steinberger, 1986; Tang et al, 1990; Yung et al, 1992), depression (Santarelli and Saxe, 2003; Czeh et al, 2005), Alzheimer's disease (Rioux and Joyce, 1993; Rosler et al, 2001), Parkinson's disease (Pezzoli et al, 1984; Rioux and Joyce, 1993) and Huntington's disease (Lastres-Becker et al, 2002). In terms of cellular actions, previous electrophysiological studies have demonstrated that substance P can enhance firing rate and depolarized neurons in several brain areas (Stanfield et al, 1985; Norris et al, 1993; Shirakawa and Moore, 1994; Napier et al, 1995; Minabe et al, 1996; Li and Guyenet, 1997; Wang and Robertson, 1997, 1998; Mitrovic and Napier, 1998; Preston et al, 2000; Bailey et al, 2004). It is therefore generally regarded as an excitatory neurotransmitter or neuromodulator.…”