A novel transgenic mouse model expressing primate-specific nuclear choline acetyltransferase: insights into potential cholinergic vulnerability.

The acetylcholine (ACh) synthesizing enzyme choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) is an important cholinergic neuronal marker whose levels and/or activity are reduced in physiological and pathological aging. One isoform of ChAT, 82-kDa ChAT, is expressed only in primates and found primarily in nuclei of cholinergic neurons in younger individuals, but this protein becomes mostly cytoplasmic with increasing age and in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies suggest that 82-kDa ChAT may be involved in regulating gene expression during cellular stress. Since it is not expressed in rodents, we developed a transgenic mouse model that expresses human 82-kDa ChAT under the control of an Nkx2.1 driver. Behavioral and biochemical assays were used to phenotype this novel transgenic model and elucidate the impact of 82-kDa ChAT expression. The 82-kDa ChAT transcript and protein were expressed predominantly in basal forebrain neurons and subcellular distribution of the protein recapitulated the age-related pattern found previously in human necropsy brains. Older 82-kDa ChAT-expressing mice presented with better age-related memory and inflammatory profiles. In summary, we established a novel transgenic mouse expressing 82-kDa ChAT that is valuable for studying the role of this primate-specific cholinergic enzyme in pathologies associated with cholinergic neuron vulnerability and dysfunction.

Facilitatory effect of dopamine on neuromuscular transmission mediated via dopamine D1-like receptors and prospective interaction with nicotine.

The objective of this study is to probe the effects of dopamine and potential interactions with nicotine at the motor end plate. To accomplish this, we measured the amplitude of nerve-evoked muscle twitches of the isolated rat phrenic hemi-diaphragm preparation. Dopamine potentiated indirect muscle twitches in normal and gallamine-presensitized preparations amounting to a maximum of 31.14±0.71% and 69.23±1.96%, respectively. The dopamine-induced facilitation was well maintained in presence of 10 µM propranolol but greatly reduced in presence of 6 µM SCH 23390 or 3 µM dantrolene. In addition, SKF 81297 attained a plateau at 16 µM as opposed to 64 µM dopamine, with a percentage potentiation of 69.47±1.76. The facilitatory effect of dopamine was potentiated in nicotine treated rats. This study revealed for the first time that the facilitatory effect exerted by dopamine on neuromuscular transmission is mediated via the dopamine D1-like receptors. In addition, it highlighted the possible dependency of dopamine effects on intracellular calcium and signified potential interaction among dopamine and nicotine. Clinically, the findings generated by this study reveal potential targets for approaching motor deficit syndromes.