Vasopressin inhibition via combined head-out water immersion and a prostaglandin E-1 precursor in the treatment of male reproductive failure due to chronic alcohol abuse

Prostaglandins as the Agents That Modulate the Course of Brain Disorders

Neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases are associated with great morbidity and mortality. Prostaglandins (PGs) are formed by sequential oxygenation of arachidonic acid in physiologic and pathologic conditions. For the production of PGs cyclooxygenase is a necessary enzyme that has two isoforms, that are named COX-1 and COX-2. COX-1 produces type 1 prostaglandins and on the other hand, COX-2 produces type 2 prostaglandins. Recent studies suggest PGs abnormalities are present in a variety of neurologic and psychiatric disorders. In a disease state, type 2 prostaglandins are mostly responsible and type 1 PGs are not so important in the disease state. In this review, the importance of prostaglandins especially type 2 in brain diseases has been discussed and their possible role in the initiation and outcome of brain diseases has been assessed. Overall the studies suggest prostaglandins are the agents that modulate the course of brain diseases in a positive or negative manner. Here in this review article, the various aspects of PGs in the disease state have discussed. It appears more studies must be done to understand the exact role of these agents in the pathophysiology of brain diseases. However, the suppression of prostaglandin production may confer the alleviation of some brain diseases.

Lipids and addiction: how sex steroids, prostaglandins, and cannabinoids interact with drugs of abuse

Lipidomics aims to identify and characterize all endogenous species of lipids and understand their roles in cellular signaling and, ultimately, the functioning of the organism. We are on the cusp of fully understanding the functions of many of the lipid signaling systems that have been identified for decades (e.g., steroids, prostaglandins), whereas our understanding of newer lipid signaling systems (e.g., endocannabinoids, N-acyl amides) still lags considerably behind. With an emphasis on their roles in the neurophysiology of addiction, we will examine three classes of lipids--sex steroids, prostaglandins, and cannabinoids--and how they work synergistically in the neurocircuitry of motivation. We will first give a brief overview of the biosynthesis for each class of lipid and its receptors, and then summarize what is known about the collective roles of the lipids in cocaine and alcohol abuse. This approach provides a novel view of lipid signaling as a class of molecules and their synergistic roles in addiction.