Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (fka RCPIQ)

[leifsmith]

Cell Research - The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway meets microRNA

http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v23/n11/full/cr2013128a.html

Something else to consider after reading a post trying to make a joke of anatabine citrate (or Anatabloc).

Acetylcholine is a cellular mediator selected early in evolution as a key neurotransmitter, but its other biological roles including immune-modulation remain to be elucidated. In a recent paper published in Cell Research, Sun et al. report that acetylcholine modulates cytokine production in macrophages via microRNA-124.

The anti-inflammatory potential of the parasympathetic system has only been recently demonstrated1,2. The vagus nerve, the principal parasympathetic nerve connecting the nervous system with peripheral organs, can control inflammation in multiple settings of critical care2. Despite its recent discovery, multiple investigators have already reported that the vagus nerve can restrain systemic inflammation in experimental ischemia and reperfusion, hemorrhage, resuscitation, pancreatitis, colitis, endotoxemia, septic shock and severe sepsis. The vagus nerve controls systemic inflammation by inhibiting cytokine production in the splenic macrophages through a mechanism mediated by modulatory lymphocytes3,4,5. These studies indicate that acetylcholine, the principal neurotransmitter of the vagus nerve, is also produced by the immune system and serves as a bidirectional molecular signal for the neural-immune coordination.