However, the expression mechanism underlying potentiated spontaneous release remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the involvement of extracellular and intracellular calcium in basal and potentiated spontaneous release. Miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) of the basolateral amygdala neurons

in acute brain slices were recorded. Forskolin, an adenylate cyclase activator, increased mEPSC frequency, and the increase lasted at least 25 min after washout. Removal of the extracellular calcium decreased mEPSC frequency in both naive and forskolin-treated slices. On the other hand, chelation of intracellular calcium see more by BAPTA-AM decreased mEPSC frequency in naive, but not in forskolin-treated slices. A blockade of the calcium-sensing receptor

(CaSR) resulted in an increase in mEPSC frequency in forskolin-treated, but not in naive slices. mTOR inhibitor These findings indicate that forskolin-induced potentiation is accompanied by changes in the mechanisms underlying Ca2+-dependent spontaneous release. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Individuals with a diagnosis of adult separation anxiety (ASAD) have extreme anxiety about separations, actual or imagined, from major attachment figures. ASAD might represent a psychological/behavioral model for research probably involving a dysregulation of those neurobiological mechanisms of attachment, in particular central oxytocin (OT), described in numerous animal studies. As experimental strategy, we chose the nucleotidic sequencing of the human OT gene of patients with ASAD to evaluate whether OT mutations were related to potential alteration of its production. With this aim, mutation scanning of proximal promoter and untranslated and coding regions of the OT many gene was carried out in 36 patients with ASAD, 14 patients without ASAD, and 26 controls. No mutations were found in promoter

and coding regions of the OT gene in our population. One rare 3′UTR single nucleotide variant (rs17339677) and one intron 2 molecular variant (rs34097556), which showed a high frequency, were evidenced. There was no significant difference in the genotype distribution of this intron 2 polymorphism between patients and healthy individuals. Further research is needed to investigate the association between ASAD and OT peptide and receptor polymorphisms. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The Coccolithoviridae are a group of viruses which infect the marine coccolithophorid microalga Emiliania huxleyi. The Emiliania huxleyi viruses (known as EhVs) described herein have 160- to 180-nm diameter icosahedral structures, have genomes of approximately 400 kbp, and consist of more than 450 predicted coding sequences (CDSs).