The vagus nerve and acetylcholine (hormone produced by the vagus nerve) slow down the heart.
For all its dramatic help, though, acetylcholine is a powerful and dangerous drug, and the doctors hope to find safer blood-vessel dilators that will be even more effective.
Those genes code for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, cell-surface proteins that selectively bind to nicotine molecules.
'Forrest Gump' mice show too much of a good thing, can be bad A line of genetically modified mice that scientists call "Forrest Gump" because, like the movie character, they can run far but they aren't smart, is furthering the understanding of a key neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Scientists say the mice show what happens when too much of this neurotransmitter becomes available in the brain.
June 20, 2013 - Science Daily