Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 150, Issue 1, 5 February 1993, Pages 39-43
Neuroscience Letters

Coupling of muscarinic receptors to GTP proteins in postmortem human brain — alterations in Alzheimer's disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(93)90103-RGet rights and content

Abstract

The coupling of muscarinic agonist receptors to guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins was investigated in the frontal, temporal cortices and thalamus of control and Alzheimer brains by using carbachol in competition experiments with [3H]QNB. In the presence of GppNHp, the carbachol/[3H]QNB competition binding data showed a 6-fold increase in the high-affinity muscarinic agonist coefficient (Ki high) in the thalami of control brains and a significantly increased proportion of low-affinity agonist binding sites (Bmax low) in the temporal cortices of control brains, while no significant effect of GppNHp was observed in Alzheimer brains. The results suggest a disturbance of the muscarinic receptor-G protein coupling in Alzheimer's disease.

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