Other

Other organic features include shallowness and lability of affect, persistent disturbance of mood, lowering of ethical standards, exaggeration of old and emergence of new see more personality traits, and diminished capacity for independent decisions. The term delirium defines one set of organic psychoses in which the characteristic features of organicity are overshadowed by clouded consciousness, confusion, disorientation, delusions, illusions, and vivid hallucinations; and the term dementia defines another set of organic psychoses, which are chronic, progressive,

and, if untreated, irreversible. While Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the definitions of affective psychoses and paranoid states are the same in ICD-9 38 and DSM-II,41 the scope of other nonorganic psychoses in ICD-9 38 is restricted to a small group of psychotic conditions, which are largely or entirely attributable to recent life experiences. The definition of schizophrenic psychoses is also changed to include Kurt Schneider’s49 first rank symptoms. Thus, schizophrenic psychoses are defined in ICD-9 38 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as a group of psychoses with a fundamental disturbance of personality, a characteristic distortion of thinking, a sense of being controlled by alien forces, delusions which may be bizarre, disturbed perceptions, abnormal affect, and autism. In schizophrenic psychoses, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the disturbance of personality involves those basic

functions that give each person a feeling of individuality, uniqueness, and selfdirection. The most intimate thoughts, feelings, and acts are often felt to be known to – or shared by – others and explanatory delusions may develop to the effect that natural or supernatural forces Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are at work to influence thoughts and actions in ways that are often bizarre. Hallucinations, especially of hearing, are common and may comment on or address Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the patient. DSM-III and DSM-III-R In 1980, DSM-II 41 was replaced by DSM-III,42 the first consensus-based classification with a multiaxial evaluation and operationalized diagnostic

criteria. In DSM-III 42, all traditional dichotomies, eg, organic versus functional, psychotic versus neurotic, Fossariinae are dismissed, and psychiatric syndromes are assigned to one of 15 categories of disease. All the different syndromes in three of these categories, ie, schizophrenic disorders, paranoid disorders, and psychotic disorders not elsewhere classified, and some of the syndromes in two of the other categories, ie, organic mental disorders and affective disorders, qualify as psychotic disorders. In DSM-III,42 the term psychotic is used to describe a patient at a given time, or a mental disorder in which at some time during its course all patients with the disorder evaluate incorrectly the accuracy of their perceptions and thoughts, and make incorrect inferences about external reality, even in the face of contrary evidence.

There is truth in the folk wisdom that, “Laugh and the World laug

There is truth in the folk wisdom that, “Laugh and the World JQ1 chemical structure laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.” The evolutionary origin of the concealment, of negative affect, derives from the behavioral ecology of pairwise contests, and probably goes back hundreds of millions of years. In a confrontation between two equally matched rivals, there is a lot of signaling of size and strength and determination to win.32 Clearly, it is in the interest of each contestant to know the determination of the other, because if he were able to say to himself, “If only I can hold out for 10 more minutes without giving in, I

know that, my opponent, will then give in,” this knowledge will give him enormous advantage in the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical fight. Therefore, each contestant will be motivated to hide any suggestion of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical being about, to give in until the actual moment, of doing so. Since negative affect is the result, of punishment, and associated with the appeasement display of giving in, the capacity to conceal negative affect is likely to be selected for. This evolved

capacity is augmented by training, and even by surgery as when the nerves and muscles of the upper lip Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are incised to prevent the telltale lip quivering of fear, and so to maintain a “stiff upper lip.” The same applies to the social aspects of prestige competition, when individuals try to present themselves as competent and in charge of the social situation. In most cultures, in order to promote their own social advantage, people like to associate with successful others, and avoid those who show signs of failure. Indeed, in our own culture it, has been found that depressed and anxious individuals are found to be socially aversive and are avoided Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical by others.59,60 On the other hand, there are cultures Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in which the demonstration of tearfulness is encouraged; among the Chewong,61

an aboriginal tribe in Malaya, the gods and ancestors are characterized by ‘Tearfulness, timidity, and retreat, in the face of perceived danger,“ and these supernatural beings act as role models for the living Chewong, who are proud of their timidity, and among whom the old men tell tales of occasions when they have run away. Unfortunately, Thiamine-diphosphate kinase epidemiological psychiatry has not yet reached the Chewong, so we do not know whether this cultural endorsement of fearfulness is associated with an increase or decrease in clinical anxiety disorders. However, the Chewong are an exception to the social rule of concealment, of negative affect, and it seems likely that, on the whole, culture has facilitated the evolution of the capacity for concealment. Communication of negative affect to friends and allies Even among nonhuman primates, and more so among humans, the result of social competition depends on friends and allies, usually close kin. The signals of submission directed at rivals are not directed to allies.

Although initial CA 19-9 levels have been shown to correlate with

Although initial CA 19-9 levels have been shown to correlate with survival in patients with LAPC or metastatic disease, there is conflicting evidence regarding the predictive value of peri-treatment CA 19-9 levels in patients with LAPC treated with radiotherapy or chemotherapy (5-8). In patients who receive chemoradiation for LAPC, data is limited regarding the prognostic significance of peri-treatment CA 19-9 (9-11). Our study aimed to investigate whether CA 19-9 provides prognostic information in patients with LAPC treated with CRT and #Ruxolitinib datasheet keyword# to determine whether such endpoints should be reported in future randomized trials. This could help to identify

patients who Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical may likely benefit from various therapeutic strategies. Methods Patients From December 1998 to October 2009, 253 consecutive patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) were identified. All patient data were entered retrospectively by a single investigator after approval

from the hospital institutional review board. Of the 253 patients, 159 underwent treatment with CRT or chemotherapy alone. Patients with metastatic disease at presentation and those who underwent surgery for Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical definitive resection were excluded. Patients with islet-cell tumors and mucinous cystadenocarcinoma were also excluded from the analysis. The variables evaluated included age, gender, race, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, weight loss >10%, chemotherapy regimen, grade 3-4 toxicity, tumor Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical diameter, and tumor location, T stage, nodal status, histologic grade, hemoglobin at diagnosis, pre and post CRT CA 19-9 and percent change from

pre and post CRT. Stage was determined according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system 6th edition (12). Patient data was obtained through the tumor registry and review of medical records and abstracted by a single investigator. To avoid false-positive elevation of serum CA19-9 due to hepatobiliary Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical diseases, chronic pancreatitis, obstruction of the common bile duct, all CA l9-9 levels were matched to a concomitant bilirubin to ensure biliary obstruction was not affecting the interpretation of CA 19-9 concentration. Patients with a serum bilirubin more than 2 mg/dL at the time of CA 19-9 measurement were excluded. The median pre-CRT CA 19-9 and post-CRT values were obtained. Tryptophan synthase This was tested in 50 point increments beginning at <50 to ≥1,000. Percent change in pre to post-CRT CA 19-9 levels were calculated as follows: [(pre-CRT CA 19-9)-(Post-CRT CA 19-9)]/(pre-CRT CA 19-9) and were tested using cut points of 10% increments were from <0% (increased) to ≥90%. Statistical analysis Survival was measured from the date of first post CRT CA 19-9 level until death or last follow-up to ensure meaningful interpretation for the variable when evaluating a decrease in value.

Approaches to the analysis of genetic variation and genotype-phen

Approaches to the analysis of genetic variation and genotype-phenotype relationships It is essential to keep the historical dimension in

mind, which has shaped approaches to the analysis of genetic variation in disease and, importantly, the concepts about, how to establish links between genotype and phenotype. This will allow putting past and present, approaches and the results they generated into perspective.39 For most, of the time, a comprehensive analysis of the entire variation given in candidate genes has been neither feasible nor practicable, nor efficient. Even though the sequences of numerous candidate genes of interest had become available in the late 1980s, the first, systematic candidate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical gene

analyses were not performed until the late 1990s. The methods at hand were indirect, ie, the variations were detected without directly analyzing DNA sequence. The variations Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical were selected randomly, ie, without emphasis on specific functionally relevant, gene regions. They were selected out of context, ie, given variation in the other parts of the gene were not issues of primary Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical relevance. What was feasible and what mattered was to be able to detect any polymorphism(s) at all in and around the gene to be able to test the candidate gene hypothesis. The limited availability of technologies to access genetic variation restricted Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the number of detectable polymorphisms and determined the type of variants identified. What counted were the ease and robustness of typing and the numbers and frequencies (inf ormativeness) of the alleles in order to be able to perform informative

association studies. For years, the variable sites utilized for such studies were largely represented by restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), different, kinds Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of repeat, markers such as microsatcllites, short, tandem repeat (STR), or variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) markers. The presence of variation within the restriction site of an enzyme or the presence of a repeat marker anywhere in the gene region were chance events that illustrate the randomness of these approaches. Later, the analysis of SNPs, the most, frequent, type of variation in the human genome, gained center stage. These were, in the early to mid 1990s, mostly identified by application of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)based mutation scanning methods, such as singlestranded conformation polymorphism Resveratrol (SSCP) detection or denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), which were supposed to detect, 80% to 95% of all variants. In the optimal case, they were found to cause a functionally significant amino acid exchange, which would allow the direct testing of potentially Adriamycin in vivo causative alleles.18 In the late 1990s, when the Human Genome Project was in progress, SNPs were generated randomly at. large scale in vitro and in silico.

The mean fluorescence intensity of the cells isolated from the p

The mean fluorescence intensity of the cells isolated from the peritoneal cavity 20 or 60hrs after the administration was 4.78 or 47.61 per 10000 cells, respectively. The calculated concentration of Hoechst 33342 was 40.1ng/mL after 20hrs or 491.0ng/mL after 60hrs. Figure 8 (a) Fluorescence intensity of U-937 cells was analyzed after

staining with serial concentrations of Hoechst 33342 using FACS Aria II. The segments P1, P2, P3, or P4 correspond to the range of fluorescence intensity at 0, 10, 100, or 1000ng/mL … In the present study we have used Hoechst 33342-incorporated PLGA to identify, isolate, and characterize cells exposed to this Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical fluorescent dye. The nuclear staining of Hoechst 33342 in vivo is a powerful marker for the isolation of cells from blood, ascites, pleural effusions, and even tissues when the tissue dissociation

and cell isolation protocol is established. In addition, we can also collect cells that are negative for fluorescence. Once the various cells have Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical been isolated, they can be analyzed for cell type and expression of specific GSK1210151A chemical structure molecules such as surface markers that may be important in cell targeting. One major limitation of the present approach is that Hoechst 33342 used as an imitating drug will be different from the actual drug in terms of molecular weight, structure, electrical charge, and/or presence/absence of specificity Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for a target molecule. Nonetheless, the present approach is useful for investigating the likely distribution of released Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical materials from individual PLGA particles in the microenvironment of target tissues. 4. Conclusion The present study successfully demonstrated that Hoechst 33342-incorporated PLGA particles can be used to simulate the drug exposure of cells in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical situ. We isolated cells exposed to this fluorescent dye as well as those that were not. These two classes of cells can then be further characterized, especially with regard to the expression of specific molecules that may be important in the targeting mechanism. The present approach may provide

essential information concerning cell targeting in any type of PLGA DDS. Conflict of Interests The authors certify that there is no conflict of interest’s with any financial organization regarding the material discussed in the paper. Acknowledgments The study Adenylyl cyclase was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and a grant from the Intractable Diseases, the Health and Labor, and Labor Sciences Research Grants from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. Some of the results were generated by using the facilities of Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. The authors also acknowledge the support of Tohoku University Global COE Program “Global Nano-Biomedical Engineering Education and Research Network Centre.

Further, while performance on IADL in AD patients tends to be ass

Further, while performance on IADL in AD patients tends to be associated with performance on such mental status examinations as the ADAS-Cog and MM.SE, there is only a limited literature attempting to link age-related changes in cognitive performance to functional activities. The Observed Tasks of Daily Living (OTDL) is

one measure that attempts to assess the ability of older adults to solve practical problems with respect to various activities of daily living.266,267 Diehl et al266 tested a hierarchical model in which speed of processing and memory span are basic processing resources and different everyday problems require the activation of different constellations of cognitive abilities. #AP24534 molecular weight keyword# Their outcome measure was the OTDL and they found that neither memory nor speed had significant direct effects on older adults’ OTDL performance. Indirect effects through the ability factors of fluid and crystallized

intelligence were significant. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Overall however, much work remains to be done to more fully assess the impact of cognitive decline on complex tasks of daily living. Future directions in normal aging It is clear from the literature that there is an increasing Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical demand to remediate or at least forestall the cognitive deficits associated with AACD, M’CI, and even normal aging. While not all older adults will develop dementia, this population appears to be less tolerant of the declines in cognitive function that, accompany normal aging. The evidence suggests that there is a growing emphasis on pharmacological approaches to prevent or reverse cognitive decline in these

populations, not only with a view to preventing the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical onset, of dementia, but also in order to enhance day to day cognitive functioning in older adults. These approaches will be accompanied by increased research on cognitive test measurement Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and sensitivity, and the concomitant refinement, of the criteria for such entities as AACD and MCI. Most, recently, we have seen the supplementation of cognitive testing with other measurement approaches, in particular brain imaging. Several studies have observed reductions in regional brain activation Tolmetin in older adults at increased risk for dementia, although no differences in neuropsychological test performance were observed.268,269 The inclusion of brain imaging measures may increase our sensitivity for detecting cognitive decline and preclinical AD. Pharmacological approaches to cognitive aging will continue to result in an increased emphasis on defining the clinical and functional significance of cognitive decline in these populations. Finally, future research will likely integrate pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches for the remediation of ageassociated cognitive impairment.

If only those studies that examined at minimum ~50 relatives and

If only those Dapagliflozin solubility dmso studies that examined at minimum ~50 relatives and ~50 controls are considered,58-65 then there is a preponderance of data suggesting that unaffected relatives (of schizophrenic individuals) have some of the neuropsychological deficits seen in affected persons. However, one must be concerned with a negative publication bias, and with the fact that a wide range of neuropsychological measures have been used, such as Wisconsin Card Sort, digit Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical span, trailmaking, tests of verbal and spatial fluency, etc. The effect size is not large, as evidenced by

the fact that multiple smaller studies have not found a significant difference between relatives of schizophrenic individuals and controls.66,67 The preponderance of data suggests that neuropsychological/cognitive deficits in schizophrenia

are present more often among affected persons compared with controls. There are data to indicate that the measures are heritable. Finally, most of the larger studies find that nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical individuals score more poorly on various neuropsychological Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical tests compared with controls. Thus, various measures of cognitive function are valid endophenotypes for schizophrenia, on the basis of the criteria noted above. Promising endophenotype candidates lacking heritability data Several potential endophenotypes for affective disorders and schizophrenia lack sufficient heritability data. For example, multiple Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical central nervous system imaging studies have revealed a failure to appropriately activate dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while performing a Wisconsin Card Sort task in some individuals with schizophrenia (for a review, see reference 68). This promising endophenotype lacks sufficient heritability data at present. Although there is some evidence that a COMT functional variant is correlated with the endophenotype,54 there is a need for substantial data on normal monozygotic and dizygotic twins. One potentially Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical useful endophenotype for affective disorders may be the magnetic resonance imaging finding

of subcortical (white matter) hyperintensities among bipolar patients.69-77 Multiple investigators have observed hyperintensities among bipolar patients more often and with greater severity, compared with control values.69-77 Two metaanalyses78,79 of white matter hyperintensities in bipolar disorder were consistent with an odds ratio of ~3.2, suggesting that bipolar patients had a greater number of such lesions compared with age- and sex-matched also controls. However, there are no genetic studies of white matter hyperintensities, so that heritability remains unknown. Complicating this limitation is the fact that the severity of white matter hyperintensities increases with age and cardiovascular disease risk factors,80 a finding that suggests that the hyperintensity images are related to ischemia, which was an early hypothesis concerning these magnetic resonance images.

2 While studies on healthy individuals are important (they allow

2 While studies on healthy individuals are important (they allow dimensional work that is particularly useful for genetic analyses), the concern is that if we are unconfident about the neurobiological basis of the disorder, studies in

healthy individuals may simply confuse the field. Considering this, they will not be considered in the current review. Three other constraints should be mentioned regarding papers included in this review. First, a striking number of the published magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies did not match groups Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for IQ. Such matching is typical in the neuropsychological literature, but is not consistent in MRI studies with this population. A failure to match for IQ can lead to some misleading results (see also the structural MRI [sMRI] section below). At the very least, it means that it is impossible to conclude that a result reflects the disorder

rather than Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical simply the impact of IQ on brain structure or function. Consequently, studies where IQ was not clearly matched will not be considered in the current review (one exception is made for some recent provocative data, however).3,4 Second, this review considers adults with psychopathy. As such, studies with youth with psychopathic traits will not be extensively reviewed. Third, only results replicated in at least Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical one other paper will be considered. For example, isolated findings of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a reduction in cortical volume in a particular area, not replicated in at least one other paper, will not be considered. Psychopathy: the behavioral profile Psychopathy is a disorder characterized

by pronounced emotional deficits, marked by reduction in guilt and empathy, and involves increased risk for displaying antisocial behavior.5 The disorder is Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical developmental. Psychopathic traits, particularly the emotional component, are relatively stable from childhood into adulthood.6,7 One reason for the attention this classification receives is its strong predictive utility for Ponatinib institutional adjustment and recidivism (ie, reoffending).8 Individuals ever with psychopathy are approximately three times more likely to reoffend than those with low psychopathic traits, and four times more likely to reoffend violently.9 Admittedly, it is the past antisocial behavior, indexed by psychopathy assessments, that is particularly important in predicting future criminal activity.8 However, it is the emotional component that characterizes psychopathy; high levels of antisocial behavior can develop from other neurobiological and socio-environmental risk factors.10 Psychopathy is not equivalent to the DSM-IV diagnosis of conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) or their ICD-10 counterparts. The psychiatric diagnoses focus on antisocial behavior rather than underlying causes; ie, the emotion dysfunction seen in psychopathy.

In most studies the mean age of participants in the study group w

In most studies the mean age of participants in the study group was over 40 years of age, and only a few studies referred to patients with first episode schizophrenia [Attux et al. 2007; Saddichha et al. 2007; De Hert et al. 2008b; Saddichha et al. 2008; Curtis et al. 2011]. The predominant diagnosis of patients studied was schizophrenia, however a great number of studies also included patients with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical schizoaffective disorder and other psychotic disorders. In almost all studies, patients

were medicated with first- and second-generation antipsychotic drugs (FGAs, SGAs) and only one cross-sectional and two case-control studies referred to drug-naïve patients [Saddichha et al. 2007, 2008; Padmavati et al. 2010]. Most studies used the NCEP-ATP III

definition while some studies also calculated MetS rates by using the IDF definition. Overall prevalence rates Prevalence rates varied largely across studies. This possibly reflected the epidemiological versatility of the groups Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of patients studied, and factors such as age, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical sex, ethnicity, medication status, smoking, duration of illness and country of origin affected the final outcome. The lowest prevalence rate reported was 3.9%, originating from an Neratinib purchase Indian population of 51 unmedicated, drug-naïve young outpatients (mean age 26.9) with chronic schizophrenia, and was based on the IDF definition of MetS [Padmavati et al. 2010]. The highest prevalence rate reported, 68%, derived Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical from a study of 221 psychotic inpatients and outpatients (mean age 37.9) from a New Zealand rehabilitation setting, who were treated with a combination of FGAs and SGAs (authors used the IDF criteria) [Tirupati and Chua, 2007]. Those two studies clearly showed how MetS rates vary between two completely different populations Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of patients with psychosis, who can be placed at the extremes of a spectrum in terms of their epidemiological features and medication status. When different criteria were used to calculate MetS in the same population, outcome rates also varied, with IDF criteria usually generating the

highest rates and NCEP-ATP III modified criteria the lowest [McEvoy et al. 2005; Correll et al. 2006, 2008; De Hert et al. 2006a and 2006b, 2007; Meyer et al. 2006; Bobes et al. 2007; Cerit et al. 2008; Rejas et al. 2008; Saddichha et al. 2008; Rezaei et al. 2009; Sugawara et al. 2010; Yazici et al. 2011]. Those studies that GPX6 also included a control group revealed that the rates of MetS in patients with schizophrenia were at least twice as high compared with the general population [Cohn et al. 2004; McEvoy et al. 2005; Saari et al. 2005; Lamberti et al. 2006; Mackin et al. 2007; Sugawara et al. 2010]. This effect was usually more prominent in younger age groups and tended to be attenuated or even reversed in older age groups [McEvoy et al. 2005; Lamberti et al. 2006; Sugawara et al. 2010; Yazici et al. 2011].

WMH severity has been suggested to predict poorer response to ant

WMH severity has been suggested to predict poorer response to antidepressant therapy.22 In fact, these lesions have been also found to be increased in children with psychiatric disorders, but are highest among bipolar

patients, when compared with controls, particularly in the frontal lobes,23 and also early in the course of bipolar illness in adolescent subjects.24 Although the cause of WMH in mood disorders is unknown, their presence – particularly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in the brains of young bipolar patients – suggests importance in the pathophysiology of the disorder.25,26 Together, these results support the contention that WMH indicate damage to the structure of brain tissue, and likely disruption of the neuronal connectivity necessary for normal affective functioning.

It is not known selleck products whether these structural brain changes seen in patients with severe Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mood disorders constitute developmental abnormalities that may confer vulnerability to abnormal mood episodes, compensatory changes to other pathogenic processes, or the sequelae of recurrent Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical affective episodes per se. Understanding these issues will partly depend upon experiments that delineate the onset of such abnormalities within the illness course and determine whether they antedate depressive episodes in individuals at high familial risk for mood disorders. Nevertheless, these prominent atrophic changes and impairments of plasticity have drawn much attention to the glutamatergic system, since – as we discuss in detail below – the glutamatergic system is known to play critical roles in regulating various forms of plasticity. Furthermore, as is discussed extensively in this issue and elsewhere,27 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical alterations in glutamatergic signaling, mediated by both NMDA and non-NMDA receptors, arc known to play important roles in stress-induced morphometric brain changes.14,28,29 Since some clinicians may be less familiar with the intricacies of the regulation of glutamate receptor subtypes, we now present a brief overview of

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the functioning and regulation of NMDA and AMPA glutamatergic receptors. We follow with a discussion of the exciting emerging data suggesting that glutamatergic signaling represents a very attractive target for the development of novel therapeutics for severe mood disorders. Thiamine-diphosphate kinase A primer on glutamatergic signaling: critical roles in cellular plasticity and resilience As the principal mediator of excitatory synaptic transmission in the mammalian brain, glutamate participates in wide-ranging aspects of both normal and abnormal CNS function. Unlike the monoamines, which require transport of amino acids through the blood-brain barrier, glutamate and aspartate cannot adequately penetrate into the brain from the periphery and are produced locally by specialized brain machinery.