Esam El-Fakahany, PhD

Dr. El-Fakahany's research interests are focused in the areas of neuronal receptor modulation, mechanisms of receptor coupling to second messenger signal transduction pathways, and Alzheimer's disease. One of the main ongoing research areas is the investigation of the cellular pathways that link muscarinic acetylcholine receptors to the generation of nitric oxide in neurons, particularly in relation to hydrolysis of membrane phospholipids and calcium signaling. The laboratory is also interested in elucidating the mechanisms of feedback regulation of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide plays major roles in the regulation of cerebral blood flow, memory and neurotoxicity. Another area of interest is the investigation of the molecular mechanisms of action of drugs used for the treatment of Alzheimer's dementia. All of these questions are addressed by applying a combination of pharmacological and molecular biology techniques in mammalian brain, cultured neurons, or genetically engineered cells.

• Alzheimer's therapy
• Psychiatry

• Cholinergic replacement therapy for Alzheimer's

Randáková, A, Nelic, D, Doležal, V, El-Fakahany, EE, Boulos, J & Jakubik, J 2020, 'Agonist-Specific Conformations of the M(2) Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor Assessed by Molecular Dynamics' J Chem Inf Model. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00041

Jakubik, J & El-Fakahany, EE 2020, 'Current Advances in Allosteric Modulation of Muscarinic Receptors' Biomolecules, vol. 10, no. 2, p. E325. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020325

Randáková, A, Nelic, D, Ungerová, D, Nwokoye, P, Su, Q, Doležal, V, El-Fakahany, EE, Boulos, J & Jakubík, J 2020, ‘Novel M(2) -selective, G(i) -biased agonists of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors’ Br J Pharmacol. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.14970

Weber-Main, AM, Shanedling, J, Kaizer, AM, Connett, J, Lamere, M & El-Fakahany, EE 2019, 'A randomized controlled pilot study of the University of Minnesota mentoring excellence training academy: A hybrid learning approach to research mentor training' J Clin Transl Sci, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 152-164. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2019.368

Jakubík, J, Randáková, A, El-Fakahany, EE & Doležal, V 2019, ‘Analysis of equilibrium binding of an orthosteric tracer and two allosteric modulators’ PLoS One, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. e0214255. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214255

Jakubík, J, Randáková, A, Rudajev, V, Zim?ík, P, El-Fakahany, EE & Doležal, V 2019, ‘Applications and limitations of fitting of the operational model to determine relative efficacies of agonists’ Sci Rep, vol. 9, no. 1, p. 4637. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40993-w

Randáková, A, Dolejší, E, Rudajev, V, Zim?ík, P, Doležal, V, El-Fakahany, EE & Jakubík, J 2018, ‘Role of membrane cholesterol in differential sensitivity of muscarinic receptor subtypes to persistently bound xanomeline’ Neuropharmacology, vol. 133, pp. 129-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2018.01.027

Jakubík, J, Randáková, A, Zim?ík, P, El-Fakahany, EE & Doležal, V 2017, ‘Binding of N-methylscopolamine to the extracellular domain of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors’ Sci Rep, vol. 7, p. 40381. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40381

Janickova, H, Rudajev, V, Dolejsi, E, Koivisto, H, Jakubik, J, Tanila, H, El-Fakahany, EE & Dolezal, V 2015, ‘Lipid-Based Diets Improve Muscarinic Neurotransmission in the Hippocampus of Transgenic APPswe/PS1dE9 Mice’ Curr Alzheimer Res, vol. 12, no. 10, pp. 923-31.

Jakubík, J, El-Fakahany, EE & Doležal, V 2015, ‘Towards predictive docking at aminergic G-protein coupled receptors’ J Mol Model, vol. 21, no. 11, p. 284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00894-015-2824-9