Intro to Neuropharmacology Flashcards
What can drugs that affect the CNS do?
- selectively relieve pain and reduce fever
- suppress disordered movement
- induce sleep or arousal, reduce appetite and allay the tendency to vomit
- treat anxiety, depression, mania or schizophrenia
What is neuropharmacology?
the use of drugs to treat CNS conditions
What can excessive use of drugs lead to?
- physical dependence
- toxic side effects e.g. lethal overdose
What does the mouse brain have?
a very prominent olfactory bulb
What are the 3 major divisions of the brain and what do they each contain?
- forebrain – telencephalon and diencephalon
- midbrain – mesencephalon
- hindbrain – metencephalon and myelencephalon
What does the corpus callosum do?
connect the 2 brain hemispheres
Where does decussation take place?
the brainstem
What are the 4 structural properties of a neuron?
- nucleus
- dendrites
- axon
- myelin
What are dendrites?
spiny branch-like structures that extend from the soma important in neural transmission
What is an axon?
long cylindrical extension of the cell body that conducts electrical charge from the cell body to axon terminals
What are the 4 main cells of the CNS?
- neurons
- astrocytes
- oligodendrocytes
- microglia
What do neurons do?
transmit nerve signals to and from the brain at up to 200mph
What are the 4 roles of astrocytes?
- biochemical support of neurons and other cell types
- support of endothelial cells → form BBB
- repair and scarring process
- guidance cues for growing neurons/axons during brain development
What do oligodendrocytes do?
produce myelin
What are microglia?
the immune cells of the CNS
When are APs formed?
when a stimulus causes the cell membrane to depolarise past the threshold of excitation, causing all sodium ion channels to open
How do APs travel down the axon?
as the membrane of the axon depolarises and repolarises
What are nodes of Ranvier?
gaps in the myelin along the axons that contain sodium and potassium ion channels and allow the AP to travel quickly down the axon by jumping from one node to the next
What does the BBB do?
help block harmful substances such as toxins and bacteria, from entering the brain
What is the BBB?
a highly selective permeability barrier that separates the circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid in the CNS
What forms the BBB?
capillary endothelial cells connected by tight junctions
What does the BBB allow?
- passage of water, some gases and lipid soluble molecules by passive diffusion
- selective transport of molecules such as glucose and amino acids that are crucial to neural function
What parts of the brain do not have a BBB?
the circumventricular organs
