Aims and Scope

The Open Pharmacology Journal is an Open Access online journal, which publishes research articles, reviews/mini-reviews, letters and guest edited single topic issues in all important areas of pharmacology, drug mechanism of action, pharmacodynamics, pharmacogenetics and toxicology, computational biopharmaceutics, drug delivery and targeting, molecular biopharmaceutics and drug disposition, pharmacokinetics, biochemical pharmacology, and pharmacodynamics.


The journal also covers special reviews/mini-reviews, commentaries, and case reports on all aspects of experimental and clinical pharmacology.


The Open Pharmacology Journal, a peer-reviewed journal, is an important and reliable source of current information on important recent developments in the field. The emphasis will be on publishing quality papers rapidly and making them freely available to researchers worldwide.


Editor's Choice

Elucidating GABAB and GABAB Receptor Functions in Anxiety Using the Stress-Induced Hyperthermia Paradigm: A Review

Christiaan H. Vinkers, John F. Cryan, Berend Olivier, Lucianne Groenink

Exposure to acute psychological or physical stress increases core body temperature (stress-induced hyperthermia, SIH) which is part of the autonomic stress response. SIH is used as a putative rodent anxiety paradigm in which anxiolytic drugs reduce the SIH response. The predictive validity of the SIH paradigm has proven to be good, making it suitable to detect the putative anxiolytic properties of drugs. So far, GABA receptor agonists including benzodiazepines and hypnotics have proven to attenuate the SIH response. The GABAA receptor has been known to be closely involved in the acute stress response. Also, the recent development of compounds with selective efficacy for different subunits at the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor has renewed interest for the therapeutic potential of GAB ergic drugs. Moreover, metabotropic (GABAB) receptor agonists reduce the SIH response. GABAB receptors are ubiquitously expressed in the central nervous system, and there is evidence for a role of the GABAB receptor in anxiety. Thus, both drugs acting on the GABAA and the GABAB receptor are generally able to attenuate the SIH response, and this review presents a detailed overview of the effects of both drug classes on the SIH response. As the GABA receptor family is diverse and complex, this paradigm may contribute to the elucidation of the putative effects of GABA ergic drugs in emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression


June 2, 2010
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