Recently started a quest to get rid of or reduce my #caffeine intake.

Looking through internet I found butterfly pea flower tea (apparently there's a lot of hype about it) and one of the things that hype says is that is great for people with anxiety, depression and #ADHD. So I said, let's read a little bit more.

#butterflypeaflower contains #acetylcholine and information about it says this:

Lesson learned? Don't follow the hype, do your research and always talk with your doctor.

My journey with myasthenia gravis: a chronic autoimmune disease

Myasthenia gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in the skeletal muscles, which are responsible for breathing and moving parts of the body, including the arms and legs.

Heather Finlay-Morreale is a pediatrician.

https://youtube.com/shorts/lXaOcmzDG6Q

Listen here: https://kevinmd.com/podcast

#myastheniagravis #muscleweakness #autoimmune #neuromuscular #acetylcholine #myastheniccrisis #breathing

What modulates the output of #cortical #parvalbumin-positive #neurons in the mature #brain?

Kai-Wen He and colleagues reveal rhythmic time- and sleep-dependent regulation via #synaptic M1 #acetylcholine receptors in the mouse primary visual cortex

https://www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/embj.2022111304

#Introduction. A #neuroscientist with interests in #neurobiologicalmechanisms supporting #mindbody & #contemplative practices, including #meditation #mindfulness #yoga & #psychedelics. I focus on #neuroscience of #self #selfawareness #selfregulation #selftranscendence, #neurophenomenology of #metaawareness, #nonduality, biomarkers of #insight #awakening #flow & #flourishing. #pharmacology, #dopamine, #acetylcholine, #learning, #memory, #hippocampus, #neuroimaging, #EEG, #fMRI, #neuropsychiatry

Disturbed transmission via #nicotinic #acetylcholine receptors in chick #fetuses impairs the hatchlings’ preference for animate objects—similar to what is seen in #autism spectrum disorder in humans.
#Neuroscience #Biology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2022/11/ns11182201.html

🔸 Between two neurons lie the pre-synaptic cell and the post-synaptic cell (cells with the synaptic terminal). They are separated by a short distance called the 'synaptic cleft'.
And the molecules of nerve transmitter are going to make their way from pre-synaptic cell to post-synaptic cell through the synaptic cleft.

🔸 Neurotransmitters need to have a termination, if they are not received by the post-synaptic cell. We use three different mechanisms to terminate the message of a neurotransmitter.

1️⃣ Diffusion: The molecules are simply going to diffuse out if they don't make it to the "ears" of post-synaptic terminal of the receiving neuron. So diffusion is a very effective way to terminate a message.

2️⃣ The second way is through something called re-uptake. And re-uptake is typically in the pre-synaptic terminal. There are channels, or transporters, which take neurotransmitters back up. The neurotransmitters get re-packaged and put back into a new vesicles (which are actually recycled as well).

🔸 And this is really important for drugs like #serotonin and #dopamine. And there are drugs that act on the serotonin and dopamine re-uptake transporters that can be used both therapeutically, for instance, to treat depression.

3️⃣ The third way that we terminate a message is through degradation. And in the case of degradation, what we have is enzymes that sit in the synaptic cleft that are just chewing up neurotransmitters. [GIF]

🔸 The molecule that the neurotransmitter where degradation is really important is #acetylcholine.
So, in case of acetylcholine, there is an enzyme that sits between the pre-synaptic and the post-synaptic cells, eating up acetylcholine, called acetylcholinesterase (AChE).

🔸 Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that is used by motor neurons. And so, in fact, blocking #acetylcholinesterase can be used for therapeutics — in the case of people that are not releasing enough acetylcholine, or don't have enough receptors for the acetylcholine.

🔸 We can boost the amount of acetylcholine in the cleft by inhibiting the acetylcholinesterase. And that's useful for people with diseases such as myasthenia gravis.

#Neurotransmitters

🧫 The synaptic terminal has these entities here, which are called synaptic vesicles, and they're small, little organelles.

🧫 They're little vesicles made of a membrane; just like the cell has a cell membrane, these vesicles have a vesicular membrane.
The neurotransmitters are within the vesicular membrane.

🧫 And, the neurotransmitter can be any number of a number of different molecules — #Glutamate, #GABA, #Serotonin, #Dopamine, #Acetylcholine, #Glycine, #Norepinephrine, #Epinephrine, #Histamine, #ATP.

🧫 The neurotransmitters are packaged in vesicles. The second thing that's important about this is that we can use the synthesis of a #neurotransmitter as a therapeutic tool.

🧫 So, for instance, Dopamine is missing in #ParkinsonsDisease.
It's not that dopamine isn't made per say, that's there's a problem with making it — it's that the cells that make it die.

🧫 There's something called 'Mass Effect', which means that you take the starting chemical (the substrate) and then through a series of enzymatic processes reaction, through a series of enzymatic reactions, we end up with a neurotransmitter.

🧫 In the case of Dopamine, what we do to treat in most people with Parkinson's is that we give them the substrate — and so that (drug) is what is commonly known as #Sinemet or #Parcopa.

🧫 So we flood the system with substrate, and the goal is to get a little bit of that neurotransmitter out of the system.

Image source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/11962755239342046/?lp=true

Hail fellow old people:
alpha-GPC, equivalent to “glycerophosphocholine” is more easily converted into #acetylcholine than other forms of #choline. Acetylcholine supports muscular strength, learning, memory, and sustained, focused attention. It is very important for the prevention of age-associated cognitive decline.
I'm not selling supplements nor advocating for a specific way of eating. Just advocating receiving enough choline in your food to slow decline.