Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors expressed in the central nervous system mediate various functions, including cognition, memory, or reward. Therefore, muscarinic receptors represent potential pharmacological targets for various diseases and conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, addiction, epilepsy, or depression. Muscarinic receptors are allosterically modulated by neurosteroids and steroid hormones at physiologically relevant concentrations. In this review, we focus on the modulation of muscarinic receptors by neurosteroids and steroid hormones in the context of diseases and disorders of the central nervous system. Further, we propose the potential use of neuroactive steroids in the development of pharmacotherapeutics for these diseases and conditions.

• Klíčová slova
• Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cholesterol, depression, muscarinic receptors, neuroactive steroids, neurosteroids, schizophrenia, substance abuse,
• MeSH
• centrální nervový systém MeSH
• cholinergní látky MeSH
• hormony MeSH
• neurosteroidy * farmakologie   MeSH
• receptory muskarinové MeSH
• steroidy farmakologie   fyziologie   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Názvy látek
• cholinergní látky MeSH
• hormony MeSH
• neurosteroidy * MeSH
• receptory muskarinové MeSH
• steroidy MeSH

Social species form organizations that support individuals because the consequent social behaviors help these organisms survive. The isolation of these individuals may be a stressor. We reviewed the potential mechanisms of the effects of social isolation on cholinergic signaling and vice versa how changes in cholinergic signaling affect changes due to social isolation.There are two important problems regarding this topic. First, isolation schemes differ in their duration (1-165 days) and initiation (immediately after birth to adulthood). Second, there is an important problem that is generally not considered when studying the role of the cholinergic system in neurobehavioral correlates: muscarinic and nicotinic receptor subtypes do not differ sufficiently in their affinity for orthosteric site agonists and antagonists. Some potential cholinesterase inhibitors also affect other targets, such as receptors or other neurotransmitter systems. Therefore, the role of the cholinergic system in social isolation should be carefully considered, and multiple receptor systems may be involved in the central nervous system response, although some subtypes are involved in specific functions. To determine the role of a specific receptor subtype, the presence of a specific subtype in the central nervous system should be determined using search in knockout studies with the careful application of specific agonists/antagonists.

• Klíčová slova
• cholinergic signaling, interactome, muscarinic receptors, nicotinic receptors, social isolation, social stress,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH