The secretion of glucocorticoids (GCs) is a classic endocrine response to stress. Despite that, it remains controversial as to what purpose GCs serve at such times. One view, stretching back to the time of Hans Selye, posits that GCs help mediate the ongoing or pending stress response, either via basal levels of GCs permitting other facets of the stress response to emerge efficaciously, and/or by stress levels of GCs actively stimulating the stress response. In contrast, a revisionist viewpoint posits that GCs suppress the stress response, preventing it from being pathologically overactivated. In this review, we consider recent findings regarding GC action and, based on them, generate criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stressresponse or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor. We apply these GC actions to the realms of cardiovascular function, fluid volume and hemorrhage, immunity and inflammation, metabolism, neurobiology, and reproductive physiology. We find that GC actions fall into markedly different categories, depending on the physiological endpoint in question, with evidence for mediating effects in some cases, and suppressive or preparative in others. We then attempt to assimilate these heterogeneous GC actions into a physiological whole. (Endocrine Reviews 21: 55‐ 89, 2000)

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How do glucocorticoids influence stress responses? Integrating permissive, suppressive, stimulatory, and preparative actions.

The existence of an endogenous vasoconstrictor in blood serum ([Stevens and Lee, 1984][1]; [Brodie, 1900][2]) and the presence in the gut of a substance that increases intestinal motility ([Vialli and Ersparmer, 1933][3]) had been known to scientists since the beginning of the century. However, it

Autoregulation of Serotonin Neurons: Role in Antidepressant Drug Action

Functional changes of the basal ganglia circuitry in Parkinson's disease.

The mitochondrial respiratory chain is a powerful source of reactive oxygen species (ROS), considered as the pathogenic agent of many diseases and of aging. We have investigated the role of Complex I in superoxide radical production and found by combined use of specific inhibitors of Complex I that the one-electron donor in the Complex to oxygen is a redox center located prior to the sites where three different types of coenzyme Q (CoQ) competitors bind, to be identified with an Fe-S cluster, most probably N2, or possibly an ubisemiquinone intermediate insensitive to all the above inhibitors. Short-chain coenzyme Q analogues enhance superoxide formation, presumably by mediating electron transfer from N2 to oxygen. The clinically used CoQ analogue idebenone is particularly effective, raising doubts about its safety as a drug. The mitochondrial theory of aging considers somatic mutations of mitochondrial DNA induced by ROS as the primary cause of energy decline; in rat liver mitochondria, Complex I appears to be most affected by aging and to become strongly rate limiting for electron transfer. Mitochondrial energetics is also deranged in human platelets upon aging, as demonstrated by the decreased Pasteur effect (enhancement of lactate production by respiratory inhibitors). Cells counteract oxidative stress by antioxidants: CoQ is the only lipophilic antioxidant to be biosynthesized. Exogenous CoQ, however, protects cells from oxidative stress by conversion into its reduced antioxidant form by cellular reductases. The plasma membrane oxidoreductase and DT-diaphorase are two such systems: likewise, they are overexpressed under oxidative stress conditions.

Role of mitochondria in oxidative stress and aging.

Intensity dependence of auditory evoked potentials as an indicator of central serotonergic neurotransmission: a new hypothesis.

The multiple biochemical and pharmacological similarities existing between blood platelets and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)-containing neurones of the CNS point to the platelets as a reliable model for the biochemical characterization of 5-HT releasers and uptake blockers which interfere with the storage and the active carrier mechanism of 5-HT in the neurones, respectively. In addition, the affinity displayed by dopamine and by dopaminergic neurotoxin MPP+ for the platelet 5-HT transport and storage indicates also some similarities between platelets and the dopaminergic system of the CNS. Since human platelets contain almost exclusively monoamine oxidase type B (MAO-B), they can be used as a source for the purification and characterization of this human enzyme. Human platelets thus offer an excellent peripheral model to indirectly assess the degree and duration of MAO-B inhibition occurring in the CNS. To date, knowledge of the many biochemical mechanisms underlying platelet physiology is still fragmentary. In fact, the functional role of binding sites located on the platelet cytoplasmic membrane, i.e. their coupling to a specific transmembrane signalling mechanism, is still in need of a precise biochemical and physiological characterization.

Platelets as a model for neurones

1. The effects of selective deactivation and stimulation of cardiopulmonary receptors on plasma noradrenaline (radioenzymatic method) were studied in nine normotensive subjects by reducing and increasing central venous pressure for 20 min via lower body suction and leg-raising manoeuvres that did not alter arterial blood pressure and heart rate. 2. Deactivation of cardiopulmonary receptors was accompanied by a rise in plasma noradrenaline that achieved a peak within 5 min (91.8 ± 22%, mean ± se) and was then sustained. Stimulation of cardiopulmonary receptors was accompanied by a fall in plasma noradrenaline (−16.6 ± 3.4%) that levelled off at the second minute and was then sustained. 3. On average the increase and the reduction in plasma noradrenaline had a time course and a magnitude similar to the increase (80.5 ± 10.5%) and the reduction (−28.4 ± 5%) in forearm vascular resistance (derived from plethysmographic flow measurement) concomitantly caused by cardiopulmonary receptors. Furthermore, analysis of individual data showed that changes in plasma noradrenaline and forearm vascular resistance were linked by a positive relationship ( r = 0.64). 4. Thus the cardiopulmonary receptor reflex can produce rapid, marked and sustained changes in both plasma noradrenaline and forearm vasomotor tone. This is in sharp contrast with the previously observed inability of the carotid baroreflex to alter both these humoral and haemodynamic variables. Taken together these findings support the hypothesis that sympathetic tone to skeletal muscle is an important determinant of the concentration of plasma noradrenaline in blood.

Changes in plasma catecholamines in response to reflex modulation of sympathetic vasoconstrictor tone by cardiopulmonary receptors

[3H]Ro 19-6327: a reversible ligand and affinity labelling probe for monoamine oxidase-B.

The novel reversible and selective inhibitor of monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) Ro 41-1049 [N-(2-aminoethyl)-5-(m-fluorophenyl)-4-thiazole carboxamide HCl] shows inhibition characteristics similar to those of the structurally related reversible MAO-B inhibitors Ro 16-6491 and Ro 19-6327. In the present study, tritiated Ro 41-1049 was used as a high affinity ligand to study the binding characteristics of this inhibitor to MAO-A and its interactions with the enzyme. An homogeneous population of high affinity binding sites for [3H]Ro 41-1049 was found in membrane preparations from human frontal cortex and placenta (Kd = 16.5 +/- 1.4 and 64.4 +/- 19.2 nM, respectively). In frontal cortex the Bmax value for [3H]Ro 41-1049 (2.6 +/- 0.4 pmol/mg of protein) was about one third of the Bmax calculated for the MAO-B-selective ligand [3H]Ro 16-6491. The density of [3H]Ro 41-1049 binding sites in human placenta varied greatly in the different tissue samples investigated, showing an average Bmax of 101.7 +/- 36.5 pmol/mg of protein. Apparent binding equilibrium was reached after 1 hr of incubation at 37 degrees. At this temperature the binding was reversible, with a dissociation t 1/2 of about 35 min. At lower temperatures the radioactivity dissociation was much slower. Among the various drugs tested, only inhibitors of MAO-A were able to effectively prevent [3H]Ro 41-1049 specific binding. As previously reported for the MAO-B ligands [3H]Ro 16-6491 and [3H]Ro 19-6327, the analysis of the membrane-bound radioactivity showed that [3H]Ro 41-1049 was entirely recovered in the form of its aldehyde derivative, indicating that Ro 41-1049 was deaminated by MAO-A. The existence of a Ro 41-1049 adduct reversibly bound to the enzyme active site might explain the inhibition mechanism of this compound. The exposure of the radioligand-enzyme complex to NaBH3CN at pH 4.5 caused the irreversible covalent incorporation of about 70% of the specifically bound radioactivity into a 60-kDa polypeptide. This incorporation was dependent on the pH and on the amount of NaBH3CN added. The presence of MAO-A- but not MAO-B-selective inhibitors prevented the covalent incorporation of [3H]Ro 41-1049. The present results indicate that [3H]Ro 41-1049 is incorporated into a subunit of MAO-A, in the presence of NaBH3CN, and modifies a protein domain that is essential for the enzyme activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Characterization of the binding of [3H]Ro 41-1049 to the active site of human monoamine oxidase-A.

The reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase type B (MAO-B) [3H]Ro 16-6491 binds specifically and with high affinity to a single population of binding sites in human frontal cortex crude mitochondria and platelet membranes. In both tissues binding equilibrium was reached after 1 h incubation at 20 degrees C. Dissociation of bound radioactivity was relatively fast at 20 degrees C (t1/2 = 90-120 min) whereas at 0 degrees C [3H]Ro 16-6491 showed the characteristics of a slowly dissociating ligand. Inhibitors and substrates of MAO-B inhibited binding of [3H]Ro 16-6491, whereas MAO-A blockers were much less potent. Ro 16-6491 was also a substrate for MAO-B and a stable unidentified intermediate of the oxidation of Ro 16-6491 possessing high affinity for the enzyme may account for the marked MAO-B inhibitory effect of the drug. According to this hypothesis Ro 16-6491 would behave as a mechanism-based reversible inhibitor. In conclusion, [3H]Ro 16-6491 binds selectively to MAO-B and represents an excellent new radioligand probe for studying the regional tissue distribution of this enzyme in normal and pathological conditions.

A. M. Cesura

Papers

Platelets as a model for neurones

Changes in plasma catecholamines in response to reflex modulation of sympathetic vasoconstrictor tone by cardiopulmonary receptors

[3H]Ro 19-6327: a reversible ligand and affinity labelling probe for monoamine oxidase-B.

Characterization of the binding of [3H]Ro 41-1049 to the active site of human monoamine oxidase-A.

Binding of [3H]Ro 16-6491, a reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase type B, to human brain mitochondria and platelet membranes.