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Hence, there are increasing efforts to develop new drugs with improved effectiveness for this disease. Moreover, some patients are unresponsive to treatment.
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These results suggest that tacrine-induced TJMs would be relieved by either cabergoline or rotigotine and that anticholinesterase-induced TJMs and the ameliorating effects of dopamine agonists would relate to neuronal activation in the striatum and nucleus accumbens.Īcromegaly is a rare disease primarily caused by growth hormone (GH)-secreting pituitary adenomas, and its treatment is costly. The number of c-Fos-positive cells was significantly enhanced in the medial striatum, nucleus accumbens core, and nucleus accumbens shell after tacrine administration, and the enhanced expression of c-Fos in these three regions was significantly attenuated by cabergoline, while rotigotine suppressed c-Fos expression in two regions except the nucleus accumbens core. Induction of TJMs by tacrine was dose-dependently reduced by pretreatment with cabergoline and rotigotine. Animals were sacrificed 2 h later under deep anesthesia, and the brain sections were immunostained in order to evaluate the c-Fos expression. The number of tremulous jaw movements (TJMs) after tacrine administration was counted for 5 min. Rats received intraperitoneal injection of cabergoline (0.5, 1.0, or 5.0 mg/kg), rotigotine (1.0, 2.5, or 10.0 mg/kg), or vehicle 30 min before intraperitoneal injection of tacrine (5.0 mg/kg). We examined the effects of two dopamine agonists, cabergoline and rotigotine, on tacrine-induced tremor and c-Fos expression in rats.
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