How to Use acetylcholine in a Sentence

acetylcholine

noun
  • Alzheimer’s disease is thought to stem from a loss in function of the neurons that produce acetylcholine.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 28 Nov. 2023
  • The process that produces acetylcholine in the brain is called the cholinergic system.
    — Lindsey Leake, NBC news, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Neostigmine cannot do this, but can allow what little acetylcholine is able to get past the venom to move freely.
    — Erik Vance, Discover Magazine, 29 July 2013
  • In people who played games like solitaire, acetylcholine levels were unchanged.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 22 Oct. 2025
  • In the brain, acetylcholine is involved in learning and memory.
    — Sheila Sullivan Zubrod, Washington Post, 7 May 2017
  • By this means, a precise balance is struck, and the body never builds up a dangerous amount of acetylcholine.
    — Rachel Carson, The New Yorker, 1 Jan. 1950
  • By blocking the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, that makes your sweat glands turn on and do their jobs.
    — Donna Freydkin, Allure, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Botox works by blocking the release of acetylcholine, a compound that makes muscles contract.
    — Emily Langer, Washington Post, 22 Dec. 2021
  • So when a person takes, say, a high dose of the motion sickness drug scopolamine — which blocks the effects of acetylcholine — things start to go awry.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Two enzymes in the brain (cholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase) play an important role in breaking down acetylcholine.
    — Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 12 Feb. 2026
  • All nerve agent victims are given atropine, which blocks muscarinic acetylcholine receptors.
    — Richard Stone, Science | AAAS, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Your body releases a molecule called acetylcholine to trigger your muscle cells to contract.
    — Sam Pellock, The Conversation, 13 Feb. 2025
  • Scientists had found that a large hub of nerve cells that make acetylcholine showed severe damage in people with Alzheimer’s disease.
    — Susan Molchan, STAT, 12 July 2021
  • Botox is an injection that blocks acetylcholine from being released, resulting in less sweating.
    — Cathy Cassata, Health, 29 July 2023
  • More acetylcholine means more brain power, and the Citicoline in Vyvamind ramps it up fast.
    — Dallas News, 24 Jan. 2023
  • These nerve poisons can inhibit an enzyme called cholinesterase, which breaks down a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
    — C. Claiborne Ray, New York Times, 29 May 2017
  • In these cases, a very likely reason for their loss of smell is a decrease in the function of a major neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
    — Sandy Bauers, Philly.com, 7 July 2017
  • Nerves release a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which binds to the receptor and tells muscles to contract.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
  • Even modest changes are meaningful, Hasselmo says, because acetylcholine does more than carry messages in the brain.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 22 Oct. 2025
  • It's thought to improve focus and vigilance by boosting levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2022
  • Choline helps produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in memory, mood, and cognition.
    — Abby Norman, Verywell Health, 6 Apr. 2026
  • Some poison frogs carry a morphine-like compound called epibatidine, which works just like the compound acetylcholine, which sends messages between nerve cells.
    — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 28 Sep. 2017
  • The body constantly has to remove those acetylcholine molecules from the receptors, otherwise there would be a dangerous build-up.
    — Simon Cotton, Scientific American, 9 Mar. 2018
  • For example, in the heart, the vagus nerve releases a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
    — Anne R. Crecelius, The Conversation, 20 June 2019
  • The Karuna drug, called KarXT, works by targeting muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain.
    — Adam Feuerstein, STAT, 18 Nov. 2019
  • The story starts with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which helps govern memory.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 28 Nov. 2023
  • There is also some evidence that compounds that increase dopamine and acetylcholine in the brain can improve certain forms of memory, such as working memory.
    — James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Aug. 2024
  • These drugs either slow the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine or block the overproduction of glutamate in the brain, but none have been shown to work very well for very long.
    — Pam Belluck, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2016
  • Specifically, many α-neurotoxins from the venom latch onto the receptor before the acetylcholine can reach it.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
  • To add to this, introverts gain more motivation from the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
    — Big Think, 28 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'acetylcholine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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