Is cyclic guanosine monophosphate the internal 'second messenger' for cholinergic actions on central neurons?

Abstract

The most consistent effects produced by intracellular injections of guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) (but not 5'-guanosine 5'-monophosphate in spinal motoneurons of cats are a rise in membrane conductance, acceleration in time course of spike potentials, and accentuation of the post-spike hyperpolarization. Associated changes in resting potential are smaller, less constant, and more often in the depolarizing than hyperpolarizing direction, cGMP tends to increase electrical excitability but reduces excitatory post-synaptic potential amplitudes. Most of the effects of intracellular cGMP are quite different from, or indeed opposite to, those of either extra- or intracellular applications of acetylcholine and therefore not consistent with the proposal that cGMP is the internal mediator of muscarinic actions.