Posted by Janelle on March 23, 2002, at 1:09:47
Fachad wrote in a thread further up that an anticholinergic drug, for example a TCA, binds to cholinergic receptors and keeps acetylcholine from acting there. Okay, so far, so good, I get this!
However, if acetylcholine is a *good* thing, why would a TCA be designed to block it, or is it an unwanted thing that a TCA blocks acetylcholine? I other words is the acetylcholine blockade an unwanted side effect of a TCA?
And this leads me to ask, just what are TCA's targeted to in the brain? (SSRI's prevent serotonin reuptake, what do TCA's do?)
And one other thing - I'm not sure I'm getting the concept of the receptor - from the spelling of the word I associate it with *receiving*, so I come away with the idea that receptors receive things. Yet, when I read various threads on here explaining things, it sounds like receptors RELEASE things? What do receptors do? Ack ... I'm confused.
poster:Janelle
thread:99599
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020322/msgs/99599.html