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[11] [31] Neurosteroids also appear to play an important role in various sexually-dimorphic behaviors and emotional responses. [29] Acute stress elevates the levels of inhibitory neurosteroids like allopregnanolone, and these neurosteroids are known to counteract many of the effects of stress. [32]
This is a list of neurosteroids, or natural and synthetic steroids that are active on the mammalian nervous system through receptors other than steroid hormone receptors. It includes inhibitory , excitatory , and neurotrophic neurosteroids as well as pheromones and vomeropherines .
Pregnenolone and its 3β-sulfate, pregnenolone sulfate, like dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), DHEA sulfate, and progesterone, belong to the group of neurosteroids that are found in high concentrations in certain areas of the brain, and are synthesized there. Neurosteroids affect synaptic functioning, are neuroprotective, and enhance myelinization.
A neurosteroidogenesis inhibitor is a drug that inhibits the production of endogenous neurosteroids.Neurosteroids include the excitatory neurosteroids pregnenolone sulfate, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), and the inhibitory neurosteroids allopregnanolone, tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC), and 3α-androstanediol, among others. [1]
Allopregnanolone is a metabolic intermediate in an androgen backdoor pathway from progesterone to dihydrotestosterone, which occurs during normal male fetus development; placental progesterone in the male fetus is the feedstock of this pathway; deficiencies in this pathway lead to insufficient virilization of the male fetus.
The y2 subunit is associated with α1-α6 subunits, which are all known α subunits, so these studies do not show which of the α subunits are related to the depressive-like symptoms. Other studies with α2 knockout mice have displayed increased anxiety and depression-like symptoms in conflict-based feeding tests.
The brain requires the use of many neurosteroids to develop and function properly. These molecules are often identified as one of many common substances including thyroid hormones, glucocorticoids, and sex hormones. However in recent studies, throughout the brain and spinal fluid, vitamin D has begun to surface as one of these neurosteroids.
The key cellular components of the neuroimmune system are glial cells, including astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes. [1] [2] [5] Unlike other hematopoietic cells of the peripheral immune system, mast cells naturally occur in the brain where they mediate interactions between gut microbes, the immune system, and the central nervous system as part of the microbiota–gut–brain axis.