Héctor Burgos

• PhD
• LABORATORIO DE BIOPSICOLOGÍA at University of Santiago Chile

It has recently been demonstrated that aromatic bromination at C(2) abolishes all typical psychomotor, and some key prosocial effects of the entactogen MDMA in rats. Nevertheless, the influence of aromatic bromination on MDMA-like effects on higher cognitive functions remains unexplored. In the present work, the effects of MDMA and its brominated a...

A loss of neuroplastic control on nucleus accumbens (NAc) neuronal activity exerted by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) through long-term depression (LTD) is involved in triggering drug-seeking behavior and relapse on several substances of abuse due to impaired glutamate homeostasis in tripartite synapses of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core. To...

Citation: Bravo, D.; Zepeda-Morales, K.; Maturana, C.J.; Retamal, J.S.; Hernández, A.; Pelissier, T.; Barra, R.; Sáez-Briones, P.; Burgos, H.; Constandil, L. NMDA and P2X7 Receptors Require Pannexin 1 Activation to Initiate and Maintain Nociceptive Signaling in the Spinal Cord of Neuropathic Rats. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 6705. https://doi. Abst...

Pannexin 1 (Panx1) is involved in the spinal central sensitization process in rats with neuropathic pain, but its interaction with well-known, pain-related, ligand-dependent receptors, such as NMDA receptors (NMDAR) and P2X7 purinoceptors (P2X7R), remains largely unexplored. Here, we studied whether NMDAR-and P2X7R-dependent nociceptive signaling i...

The study aimed to systematically analyze the empirical evidence that is available concerning batteries, tests or instruments that assess hot executive functions (EFs) in preschoolers, identifying which are the most used instruments, as well as the most evaluated hot EFs. For the review and selection of articles, the systematic review methodology P...

Prenatally malnourished rats develop hypertension in adulthood, in part through increased α1-adrenoceptor-mediated outflow from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) to the sympathetic system. We studied whether both α1-adrenoceptor-mediated noradrenergic excitatory pathways from the locus coeruleus (LC) to the PVN and their reciprocal excitatory CRFer...

La neurociencia, en particular la neuropsicología, ha otorgado una explicación a diversas actividadeshumanas. ¿Existe evidencia de la activación de estructuras y mecanismos neurobiológicos asociados a la espiritualidad y la religión (E/R)? ¿La actividad E/R genera transformaciones en los procesos neurobiológicos que pueden impactar la actividad y s...

Moderate reduction of dietary protein (from 25% to 8% casein) in pregnant rats, calorically compensated by carbohydrates, gives rise to ‘hidden prenatal malnutrition’ (HPM) in the offspring since it does not alter body and brain weights of pups at birth. However, this dietary treatment leads to decreased β-adrenoceptor signaling and brain derived n...

Studies in rats have shown that a decrease in either protein content or total dietary calories results in molecular, structural, and functional changes in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, among other brain regions, which lead to behavioral disturbances, including learning and memory deficits. The neurobiological bases underlying those effects d...

The synthetic psychotropic amphetamine 2-(4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-[(2-methoxyphenyl)methyl]ethanamine, also known as 25B-NBOMe, is a N-methoxylated derivative of the hallucinogen 2C-B (2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine). Athough 25B-NBOMe exhibits high affinity for serotonergic 5-HT2 receptors and very high in vivo potency, the underlying str...

2,4-dimethoxyamphetamine (2,4-DMA) is a synthetic psychotropic drug structurally related to the hallucinogen mescaline. Nevertheless, human reports suggest a more complex pharmacological profile, including stimulant-like properties and even entactogenic-like effects. Unfortunately, available in vivo data supporting the latter assumptions are scarce...

While all medicaments are checked for toxic and other harmful effects, their possible influence on plasticity in the CNS often are simply unknown. Several psychostimulants such as methylphenidate (MPH; “Ritalin”) or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“Ecstasy”) modulate synaptic plasticity in rodents in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. We...

Methylphenidate (MPH) is widely used in children and adolescents suffering from Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Recently, it has been shown that MPH acutely applied has metaplastic effects, i. e. it augments long-term potentiation in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in vitro. We investigated whether metaplasticity induced by MPH is l...

Methylphenidate (MPH) is widely used as a "nootropic" agent and in the treatment of disorders of attention, and has been shown to modulate synaptic plasticity in vitro. Here we present in vivo evidence that this MPH-induced metaplasticity can last long after the end of treatment. MPH (0, 0.2, 1 and 5mg/kg) was administered daily to male rats from p...

The mHealth can provide access and continuity of health care to people who's for condition or distance not might otherwise have. It allows approaching the health team to the point where the person requires health care. This randomized experimental study, quantitative qualitative longitudinal have the purpose to design a mobile electronic health rec...

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that is increasing at an alarming rate. One of its causes is the increased availability and consumption of diets rich in fat. In the present study, we investigated the effects of short-term consumption of a high fat diet (HFD) on dietary preferences in Swiss CD1 mice and its relation in time to specific metabolic eff...

Moderate reduction in the protein content of the mother's diet calorically compensated by carbohydrates (the so-called "hidden" prenatal malnutrition) leads to increased neocortical expression of the α2C-adrenoceptor subtype, together with decreased cortical release of noradrenaline and impaired long-term potentiation (LTP) and visuospatial memory...

J. Neurochem. (2011) 119, 314–323. Moderate reduction in the protein content of the mother’s diet (hidden malnutrition) does not alter body and brain weights of rat pups at birth, but leads to dysfunction of neocortical noradrenaline systems together with impaired long-term potentiation and visuo-spatial memory performance. As β1-adrenoceptors and...

Modafinil is a novel wake-promoting agent whose effects on cognitive performance have begun to be addressed at both preclinical and clinical level. The present study was designed to investigate in rats the effects of chronic modafinil administration on cognitive performance by evaluating: (i) working and reference memories in an Olton 4×4 maze, and...

beta-Adrenergic receptor stimulation can significantly facilitate synaptic potentiation in the hippocampus and enhance memory processes, but its effect on neocortical plastic mechanisms is less conclusive. In the present study we determined the effect of propranolol, a beta-adrenoceptor antagonist, on long-term potentiation (LTP) induced in vivo in...

Cytokines produced by spinal cord glia after peripheral injuries have a relevant role in the maintenance of pain states. Thus, while IL-1beta is overexpressed in the spinal cords of animals submitted to experimental arthritis and other chronic pain models, intrathecal administration of IL-1beta to healthy animals induces hyperalgesia and allodynia...

Reduction of the protein content from 25 to 8% casein in the diet of pregnant rats results in impaired neocortical long-term potentiation (LTP) of the offspring together with lower visuospatial memory performance. The present study was aimed to investigate whether this type of maternal malnutrition could result in modification of plastic capabilit...

Melatonin has been shown to inhibit long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal slices of rats. Since LTP may be one of the main mechanisms by which memory traces are encoded and stored in the central nervous system, it is possible that melatonin could modulate cognitive performance by interfering with the cellular and/or molecular mechanisms invol...

Mild reduction in the protein content of the mother's diet from 25 to 8% casein, calorically compensated by carbohydrates, does not alter body and brain weights of rat pups at birth, but leads to significant enhancements in the concentration and release of cortical noradrenaline during early postnatal life. Since central noradrenaline and some of i...

Although the effects of antidepressants in brain neurochemistry have been extensively studied, there are scarce and inconsistent data on the effect of these drugs in learning and memory. The authors studied the effect of daily administration of a single dose of either clomipramine or desipramine, two monoamine-reuptake-inhibitors with preferential...

Desipramine-induced inhibition of spinal cord nociceptive transmission was studied in rats with or without lesion of the bulbospinal noradrenergic system by recording the C-fiber evoked nociceptive reflex from a hind limb. Bulbospinal noradrenergic projections were lesioned by injecting intrathecally 20 microg of 6-hydroxydopamine 2 weeks before th...

The effects of erythropoietin on maturation of erythroid cells were studied in short-term cultures of foetal mouse liver. Erythropoietin-treated cultures had about 50% more cells than untreated cultures after 24 h. The increase occurred in basophilic, polychromatic and orthochromatic erythroblasts as well as in reticulocytes. A striking feature of...

During 1970-1972, 22,709 cattle, 14,749 sheep and 51,156 pigs were slaughtered. Hydatidosis and fascioliasis were present respectively in 37.0 and in 74.7% of the cattle, 14.7 and 14.6% of the sheep, and in 20.1 and 14.1% of the pigs. Cysticercosis and trichinosis were found in 1.9 and 0.8% of the pigs. With the exception of fascioliasis, the other...

La desnutrición causa efectos deletéreos visibles y encubiertos en el sistema nervioso de los organismos. Veladamente, existen alteraciones Del sistema noradrenérgico a nivel del sistema nervioso central específicamente en neocorteza e hipocampo. La sustitución de proteínas por carbohidratos y lípidos otorga el carácter oculto de este tipo de desnu...