Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) mediated dopamine release in larval Drosophila melanogaster

Publication date: Available online 3 January 2018 Source:Neurochemistry International Author(s): Poojan Pyakurel, Mimi Shin, B. Jill Venton Acetylcholine is an excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of insects and the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) is a target for neonicotinoid insecticides. Functional insect nAChRs are difficult to express in host cells, and hence difficult to study. In mammals, acetylcholine and nicotine evoke dopamine release, but the extent to which this mechanism is conserved in insects is unknown. In intact larval ventral nerve cords (VNCs), we studied dopamine evoked by acetylcholine, nicotine, or neonicotinoids. Using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, we confirmed dopamine was measured by its cyclic voltammogram and also by feeding Drosophila the synthesis inhibitor, 3-iodotyrosine, which lowered the evoked dopamine response. Acetylcholine (1.8 pmol) evoked on average 0.43 ± 0.04 μM dopamine. Dopamine release significantly decreased after incubation with α-bungarotoxin, demonstrating the release is mediated by nAChR, but atropine, a muscarinic AChR antagonist, had no effect. Nicotine (t1/2 = 71 s) and the neonicotinoids nitenpyram and imidacloprid (t1/2 = 86 s, 121 s respectively) also evoked dopamine release, which lasted longer than acetylcholine-stimulated release (t1/2 = 19 s). Nicotine-stimulated dopamine was significantly lower in the presence of sodium channel blocker, tetrodotoxin, s...
Source: Neurochemistry International - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research