Comment · Fri, August 7, 2015 · Ceretropic
Long-acting ghrelin mimetics (MK-677) negatively affect fear processing. (MK-677!)
Original post in this thread
aesthet · 18 points
Study:
[A ghrelin–growth hormone axis drives stress-induced vulnerability to enhanced fear, RM Meyer, Molecular Psychiatry \(2014\), 1284 – 1294](
http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v19/n12/full/mp2013135a.html)
Here we demonstrate changes in endogenous ghrelin following stress and also use a low-dose, long-acting agonist to replicate the naturally occurring ghrelin state. We also provide clear evidence that acute and chronic ghrelin receptor manipulations have profoundly different effects. It is important to note that the changes in fear reported here occurred following small, but persistent, changes in ghrelin signaling, and all were in the absence of any locomotor effects.
We suggest that the utility of ghrelin in the stress response may be similar to glucocorticoids: under ‘normal’ conditions, there is an optimal level of the hormone, and too little, or too much hormonal signaling can lead to dysfunction in neuronal circuits. Repeated activation of ghrelin and glucocorticoid pathways together contributes to stress-induced ‘load’ on the body. In this regard, heightened ghrelin signaling may have both advantageous and undesirable consequences, but these must be ca…
What they were answering
AFPJ · 6 points
I made the water out of a jet vs a faucet analogy because they literally bathed a part of the rat brain in this stuff.
solubilized in physiological artificial cerebrospinal fluid (vehicle; pH=7.35). MK-0677 was solubilized to 0.5 μg μl−1
Extrapolating that you get a ludicrous in vivo concentration, only 100 times less than Ceretropic's in vitro. Assuming a linear dose-response curve and some other equally ridiculous over-simplifications and assumptions, you would need to chug ~0.55% of your bodyweight's worth of these babies to hypothetically reach conditions similar to this experiment.
That's like, assuming you don't vomit or die or straight up turn into Lucy and flash out of mortal existence. On the other hand /u/MisterYouAreSoDumb would have a pretty great month, financially speaking. I'm not in a field where I use these notations very often so if I made conversion mistakes or my reasoning is wrong, please do fact check me.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Water jets can't melt steel blood brain barriers.