The Roles of a5-Containing nAChRs in the Brain

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are in the superfamily of the ligand-gated ion channels with an assembly of five subunits (a, bsubunit). nAChRs, such as a4b-and a7-nAChRs play crucial roles in nicotine reward, dependence and withdrawal. Recently, functional profiles of the a5 nAChRs have been studied using the a5 knockout (KO) and the overexpression mice. a5-nAChRs in the brain participate in neuronal activities associate with nicotine dependence, withdrawal, aversion, as well as alcohol use disorders. The main focus of this review is to understand a5-containing nAChR’s properties, function, and related disorders recently discovered. The Roles of a5-Containing nAChRs in the Brain Ming Gao1*, Yakun Wang1 and Jie Wu1 1Divisions of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, USA *Corresponding author: Ming Gao, Division of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85013-4496, USA, Tel: (602) 406-3029; E-mail: [email protected] Received January 06, 2014; Accepted January 25, 2014; Published February 5, 2014 Citation: Gao M, Wang Y, Wu J (2014) The Roles of a5-Containing nAChRs in the Brain. Biochem Pharmacol 3: 129. doi:10.4172/2167-0501.1000129 Copyright: © 2014 Gao M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.