Nikolaus S, Huston J P, Hasenöhrl R U
Institute of Physiological Psychology & Center for Biological and Medical Research, University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Neurosci Lett. 2000 Mar 31;283(1):37-40. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3940(00)00902-2.
Prior studies have shown that the neurokinin substance P (SP) has anxiolytic-like effects when administered into the nucleus basalis (NB) area of the rat ventral pallidum. The present work was performed to examine whether the anxiolytic effects of SP in the nucleus basalis can be assigned its amino (N)- or carboxy (C)-terminal moiety. Using the elevated plus-maze model of anxiety in combination with unilateral injection of N-terminal SP(1-7) or C-terminal SP(7-11) into the NB region, we found that the treatment with either SP-fragment increased the number of entries into and time spent on the open arms as well as excursions into the end of the open arms, indicative of an anxiolytic-like profile. Furthermore, the effective doses of SP(1-7) (0.67 ng) and SP(7-11) (0.45 ng) were equimolar to the dosage of the whole SP molecule (1 ng), which was effective to reduce anxiety. Thus, the results support earlier findings that ventral pallidal injection of SP has anxiolytic-like effects and provide new evidence that fragments of SP, representing the N- and C-terminal domain of the peptide can reduce fear-parameters at a concentration similar to that of the parent peptide.
先前的研究表明，将神经激肽P物质（SP）注入大鼠腹侧苍白球的基底核区域时具有抗焦虑样作用。开展本研究是为了检验基底核中SP的抗焦虑作用是否可归因于其氨基（N）端或羧基（C）端部分。利用高架十字迷宫焦虑模型，并结合向基底核区域单侧注射N端SP（1 - 7）或C端SP（7 - 11），我们发现用任何一种SP片段进行处理均能增加进入开放臂的次数、在开放臂上花费的时间以及进入开放臂末端的次数，表明具有抗焦虑样特征。此外，SP（1 - 7）（0.67纳克）和SP（7 - 11）（0.45纳克）的有效剂量与整个SP分子（1纳克）的剂量等摩尔，而整个SP分子的剂量可有效减轻焦虑。因此，这些结果支持了早期的研究结果，即向腹侧苍白球注射SP具有抗焦虑样作用，并提供了新的证据，表明代表该肽N端和C端结构域的SP片段能够以与母肽相似的浓度降低恐惧参数。
