Anti-PNOC (aa 135-151) polyclonal antibody

The endogenous neuropeptide nociceptin (N/OFQ), which mediates its actions via the nociceptin receptor (NOP), is implicated in multiple behavioural and physiological functions. This study examined the effects of the NOP agonists N/OFQ and the synthetic agonist Ro 64-6198, the antagonists NNN and NalBzoH, as well as deletion of the Pronociceptin gene on emotional memory in mice. The animals were tested in the passive avoidance (PA) task, dependent on hippocampal and amygdala functions. N/OFQ injected intraventricularly (i.c.v.) prior to training produced a biphasic effect on PA retention; facilitation at a low dose and impairment at higher doses. Ro 64-6198 also displayed a biphasic effect with memory facilitation at lower doses and impairment at a high dose. None of the agonists influenced PA training latencies. NNN did not significantly modulate retention in the PA task but antagonized the inhibitory effects of N/OFQ. NalBzoH facilitated memory retention in a dose-dependent manner and blocked the impairing effects of N/OFQ. However, neither NNN nor NalBzoH blocked the memory-impairing effects of Ro 64-6198. Finally, the Pnoc knockout mice exhibited enhanced PA retention latencies compared to the wild type mice. The biphasic effect of the natural ligand and Ro 64-6198 and the failure of the antagonists to block the action of Ro 64-6198 indicate complexity in ligand-receptor interaction. These results indicate that brain nociceptin and its NOP has a subtle role in regulation of mechanisms of relevance for treatment of disorders with processing disturbances of aversive events e.g. Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, depression and PTSD. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Photonic network-on-chip (PNoC) architectures are a potential candidate for communication in future chip multiprocessors as they can attain higher bandwidth with lower power dissipation than electrical NoCs. PNoCs typically employ dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) for high bandwidth transfers. Unfortunately, DWDM increases crosstalk noise and decreases optical signal to noise ratio (SNR) in microring resonators (MRs) threatening the reliability of data communication. Additionally, process variations induce variations in the width and thickness of MRs causing shifts in resonance wavelengths of MRs, which further reduces signal integrity, leading to communication errors and bandwidth loss. In this paper, we propose a novel encoding mechanism that intelligently adapts to on-chip process variations, and improves worst-case SNR by reducing crosstalk noise in MRs used within DWDM-based PNoCs. Experimental results on the Corona PNoC architecture indicate that our approach improves worst-case SNR by up to 44.13%.