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Fig. 1 | Bioelectronic Medicine

Fig. 1

From: Is the post-COVID-19 syndrome a severe impairment of acetylcholine-orchestrated neuromodulation that responds to nicotine administration?

Fig. 1

(Cholinergic neuromodulation): AChRs are located in the membranes of neural cell bodies, as well as in pre- or post-synaptic sites and at the axonal membranes. ACh binding regulates both the velocity and amount of transmitter release, as well as cell excitability; it also orchestrates network operation between several core groups, as well as synchronized response behavior to internal and external stimulation. Cholinergic neuro-modulatory action is an indispensable requirement for neural plasticity, neuronal development and learning processes. Thus, numerous physiological functions (sleep, arousal, fatigue, anxiety, nutritional behavior, cognition and central processing of pain) are interactively regulated by cholinergic neuromodulation. The two different subtypes of AChRs bind, despite ACh, to either nicotine (nAChrs) or muscarine (mAChRs). While mAChRs act slowly and promote a multitude of excitatory or inhibitory transmission effects via numerous canonical and non-canonical pathways, nAChRs consist of a homomeric (α) or heteromeric (α/β) configuration of 5 subunits, forming calcium channels with fast reaction to agonistic stimulation. These allosteric nAChRs are the principal structures of central and autonomic neuromodulation and underlie great plasticity in terms of count, binding sites and affinity dependent upon agonist stimulation

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