The Muscarinic Modulation of Acetylcholine Release from the Rat: Neostriatum Changes with Senescence

Abstract

Alzheimer’s Disease, an age-related neurological disorder, is associated with a loss of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain (Whitehouse et al., 1982; Coyle et al., 1983). Treatment strategies for the disease have been aimed to improve cholinergic function in the central nervous system. The general target for improving cholinergic function has been the muscarinic receptor, and attempts have been made to increase the action of acetylcholine (ACh) at these receptors with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, muscarinic agonists, or the ACh precursor, choline. These attempts to increase cholinergic function by increasing the activity of ACh at muscarinic receptors, however, have been met with variable success (Molloy and Cape, 1989).