Highly Selective Neurotoxins Basic and Clinical Applications

Expert researchers critically review and evaluate the most common and important neurotoxins used today in neuroscience research. Each informative chapter thoroughly describes the significant mechanisms of action of a neurotoxin, as well as fully discussing the limits on their use and their clinical applicability. Several clinically oriented chapters are significant for neurologists treating Parkinsonism, for psychiatrists treating drug abuse and neurodegenerative disorders, and for primary care physicians treating patients with appetite suppressants. Highly Selective Neurotoxins provides all the basic knowledge needed to obtain a predictable experimental outcome with these neurotoxins.

1 6-Hydroxydopamine and Related Catecholaminergic Neurotoxins: Molecular Mechanisms.- 2 The Use of Neurotoxins to Lesion Catecholamine-Containing Neurons to Model Clinical Disorders: Approach for Defining Adaptive Neural Mechanisms and Role of Neurotrophic Factors in Brain.- 3 6-Hydroxydopamine as a Tool for Studying Catecholamines in Adult Animals: Lessons from the Neostriatum.- 4 6-Hydroxydopa, a Catecholamine Neurotoxin and Endogenous Excitotoxin at Non-NMDA Receptors.- 5 2-Chloroethylamines (DSP4 and Xylamine): Toxic Actions on Noradrenergic Neurons.- 6 MPTP: A Dopaminergic Neurotoxin.- 7 Haloperidol-Derived Pyridinium Metabolites: Structural and Toxicological Relationships to MPP+-Like Neurotoxins.- 8 The Neurotoxic Effects of Continuous Cocaine and Amphetamine in Habenula.- 9 Evidence for and Mechanism of Action of Neurotoxicity of Amphetamine Related Compounds.- 10 Molecular Mechanisms of Action of 5,6- and 5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine.- 11 Use of 5,6- and 5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine to Lesion Serotonin Neurons.- 12 Selective Cholinergic Neurotoxins: AF64A and 192-IgG-Saporin.- 13 Glutamatergic Receptor Agonists and Brain Pathology.- 14 Neurotoxicity of NMDA Receptor Antagonists.- 15 Toxic Vanilloids.