Synaptic transmission

Every compound in the sci-wiki that affects synaptic transmission; the ones you can source are floated to the front, then the reference-only entries. Tap any for the full entry, mechanism, and outlets.

0 sourced · 2 reference

←synaptic transmission2/2

Nootropic

FK-960

FK-960 was Fujisawa Pharmaceutical's (Japan) 1990s answer to a completely different question than most nootropics of its era: instead of chasing acetylcholine or glutamate receptors, it tried to boost memory by stimulating somatostatin release and, downstream, glial production of GDNF (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor). Preclinical work showed it ameliorated memory deficits in rodent models and enhanced hippocampal signaling relevant to long-term potentiation. It moved through animal and early-stage research toward a possible Alzheimer's disease application, but somatostatin-boosting drugs never carved out a clinical niche in dementia care, and FK-960 stalled well short of approval, remembered now mostly in pharmacology reviews as a case study in an alternate route to memory enhancement.

reference

Estrogen

WAY-200070

WAY-200070 is a synthetic nonsteroidal agonist of estrogen receptor beta, made at Wyeth as one of a series designed to tell the two estrogen receptors apart [5]. It binds ERbeta in the low nanomolar range and ERalpha roughly two orders of magnitude more weakly, which is exactly what makes it useful: an effect that appears with WAY-200070 and vanishes in an ERbeta knockout mouse belongs to that receptor rather than to estrogen in general, and that control was actually run [6]. Its reputation in neuroscience comes from hippocampal work, where ERbeta activation raised synaptic proteins and improved memory in rodents [1]. Outside the brain the same compound has been used to study asthma, kidney fibrosis, insulin secretion and cancer cell growth. It is a laboratory probe throughout; there is no approved human use, no human trial, and no human safety data of any kind.

reference