Cholinergic mechanisms--tenth international symposium. 1-5 September 1998, Arcachon, France

This meeting, the tenth in a series of conferences that was established in Stockholm in 1970, focused on fundamental and applied aspects of processes involving acetylcholine (ACh) as a neurotransmitter. The role of cholinergic mechanisms in central and peripheral nervous systems, sensory organs and muscles was addressed. Several deficiencies in neuromuscular cholinergic neurotransmission were discussed, including myasthenia gravis and the genetic basis of inherited myasthenic syndromes. In the brain, cholinergic communication is central to basic processes, such as sleep, arousal and memory, addiction to nicotine and various neurological and psychiatric disorders, including dementia and certain epilepsies. Cholinergic drugs are currently in use, or in advanced stages of development, for the chronic treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and myasthenia gravis, as well as for the treatment of acute intoxication with organophosphate or carbamate inhibitors of the ACh hydrolyzing enzyme acetyl-cholinesterase (AChE). AChE inhibitors include commonly used insecticides, but also the infamous nerve agents; therefore, the ill-defined Gulf War Syndrome was also discussed. The meeting became the venue where basic mechanisms and the structure-function properties of key molecules involved in cholinergic neurotransmission were discussed in view of their implications for toxicology, pharmacology, medicine and the environment. The presentations in this meeting were all collected, edited by Dr Jean Massoulié (Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France) and published by Elsevier (ISBN:2-84299-065-X) in September, 1998. In the following report, the aspects of this meeting that are closely related to drug development and use are covered.