Erik T. Alpyshov

TL;DR: The importance of arecoline is supported by its being the world's fourth most commonly used human psychoactive substance (after alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine) and social and historical aspects of its use and abuse.

TL;DR: The study suggests that novel anxiolytic drugs can eventually be developed based on arecoline-like molecules, whose integrative mechanisms of CNS action may involve monoaminergic and neuro-immune modulation.

TL;DR: The zebrafish opioid system is discussed with specific focus on opioid gene expression, existing genetic models, as well as its pharmacological and developmental regulation, including evidence of functional interplay between the opioid system and central dopaminergic and other neurotransmitter mechanisms.

TL;DR: Recent findings and the role of the intraspecies variance in neurobehavioral, pharmacological and toxicological studies utilizing zebrafish and other fish models are discussed and potential strategies to improve data reproducibility and translatability are outlined.

TL;DR: This study supports evolutionarily conserved behavioral and physiological effects of kava and kavalactones in zebrafish, implicates brain monoamines in their acute effects, and provides novel important insights into potential role of neuroglial and epigenetic mechanisms in long-term kava use.