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PRINCIPLES OF NEUROTRANSMISSION
• In pharmacology, we are interested in the target organ (e.g. skeletal muscle). If we know which organ is targeted by
nerves, we can find drugs that can alter the function of the organ.
CNS
Brain &
Spinal cord
Autonomic Somatic
(involuntary) (voluntary)
Skeletal muscle
Sympathetic Parasympathetic
Enteric
• There are 2 divisions of the autonomic nervous system (3 if you include the enteric)
1. Parasympathetic
• Anatomically, the parasympathetic fibres are located craniosacrally in the spinal cord
• The have long preganglionic fibres
• Short postganglionic fibres, with the ganglion close to or in the target tissue
2. Sympathetic
• Anatomically, are located in the thoracolumbar portion of the spinal cord
• Have short preganglionic fibres which synapse in ganglia which form a chain - the sympathetic
trunk.
• The postganglionic fibres leave this chain and head off to the tissues. Hence, they tend to be
relatively long.
• Most tissues are innervated by both parasympathetics and sympathetics nerves, however there are some exceptions
to this:
• Tissues predominantly sympathetic nerves:
• Blood vessels
• Skin
• Kidney, liver
• Adipose tissue
• Tissues predominantly parasympathetic nerves:
• Bronchi (note that you can have sympathetic stimulation of bronchi via adrenaline - not by direct
nervous stimulation)
• There are also some exceptions to the general layout of the autonomic fibres:
• Some sympathetic preganglionic fibres may pass right through the sympathetic trunk without synapsing
and go directly to the gut where there is a sympathetic ganglion in the viscera.
By Duy Thai, 1997 Pharmacology Semester 1 page 2 of 4
• There is a single sympathetic fibre which goes directly to a tissue without synapsing - the tissue is the
adrenal glands, which when stimulated release noradrenaline and adrenaline.
Chemical transmission
• How does information travel from the brain to the target?
• Electrical transmission via action potentials transmit messages down a nerve fibre
• Chemical transmission is used to transmit signals from neuron to neuron via the synapse.
• Evidence for chemical transmission was based on the fact that the presynaptic terminal had a
morphology similar to a hormone secretory cell. It contained vesicles which presumably
contained chemicals which could be exocytosed into the synaptic cleft to act on the post synaptic
terminal
• For chemical transmission to be accepted, it was not good enough to say that the chemical was there . There needed
to be more evidence to show that:
1. The nerve can synthesise the chemical de novo
2. The nerve can store the chemical
3. There must be some way of being able to release the chemical
4. The chemical needs to have a receptive site on the target
5. The chemical needs to be able to be inactivated via:
• Metabolism
• Reuptake
N Heart
Ach Ach
Parasympathetic M GIT
Bronchi
N
Ach Ach
M Sweat glands
Sympathetic N Heart
Ach Noradrenaline
α, β GIT
Blood vessels
Ach N
Adrenal release of NA
and adrenaline
Nicotinic receptors
• Can mimic the sympathetic or parasympathetic system, depending on where the agonist is placed.
• If the agonist is placed in the sympathetic trunk, then most likely you would get a sympathetic response
• If the agonist was placed in the tissues, which is where the parasympathetic ganglia are located, you would
get a parasympathetic response
• If an agonist is placed on skeletal muscle, contraction of skeletal muscle can occur
Muscarinic receptors
• Heart Decrease rate and force
• Bronchi Constriction The ones in bold are supplied
predominantly by parasympathetics
• GIT Increased motility, dilation of sphincters
• Pupil Constriction
• Glands Secretion
Adrenoreceptor activation
• α adrenoreceptors
• Blood vessels Constriction (control of BP)
• GIT Constrict sphincters
• Pupil Dilates
• β adrenoreceptors
• Heart Increased rate and force
• Skeletal blood vessels Dilation
• Kidney Renin secretion
• Liver Glycogenolysis
• Bronchi Dilation (via circulating adrenaline)
• Muscarinic and αβ receptors work via ion channels or second messenger systems, and so they mediate slower
transmission
• Nicotinic receptors are the odd one out.
• They are generally at the site of fast transmission (such as between nerve to nerve, or nerve to skeletal
muscle)