Posted by Elizabeth on October 19, 1999, at 12:32:27
In reply to Re: Reboxetine translation pls., Andrewb, JohnL,or, posted by dj on October 18, 1999, at 0:06:49
> Eliz, kindly responded to Bob's request however the jargon is still a bit thick for those of us who flunked chemistry, didn't study pharmacy and prefer english to scientific semi-mystic babble...
...whereas I'm just barely passing chemistry... (should spend less time online, eh?)
Sorry about that! Give me a chance to try again, at least : norepinephrine is a metabolite of epinephrine, aka adrenaline, a neurotransmitter (like serotonin). Norepinephrine is associated with alertness, in particular (though it seems to have a number of functions).
> And perhaps while you are at it you can clearly explain what exactly a "reuptake inhibitor" is and does, as I don't know enough about your politics to determine what Congress is doing to the country, though generally one hears that politicians of all types are screwing their counties, however I can't quite see the chemical interaction there (the seminal one, perhaps but I digress...;8^! )
Reuptake...well, okay, this requires some other stuff though. So the way neurons (nerve cells) talk to each other is, one of them "fires" a chemical (a neurotransmitter) and the second one, if it's in the right place at the right time, "receives" it (i.e., it binds to the appropriate receptor, a protein that is activated by the neurotransmitter, on the receiving cell). The gap in between the two cells is called a synapse (the first cell, the firing one, is sometimes called "presynaptic," while the second is the "postsynaptic" neuron.)
Not all of the neurotransmitter arrives at the receptor on the postsynaptic cell. Reuptake is the process whereby the neurotransmitter gets moved back into the cell via the transporter (a protein on the cell membrane). A reuptake inhibitor is a substance that blocks the transporter, thus increasing the amount of neurotransmitter outside the cell. Longer-term effects are more complicated, as the central nervous system will try to compensate for the increased concentration of neurotransmitter.
I hope this makes some sense.
(The thing about Congress was a paraphrase of a very old joke. It makes no sense otherwise. I must have been tired when I wrote that.)
> And is it possible that the recprtors affected are the same one's andrewb refers to in our earlier thread about the effects of various meds.
I'll have to read that thread to find out, I guess!
poster:Elizabeth
thread:13305
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991016/msgs/13434.html