Recent structural studies show, not only how the desensitization of a ligand-gated ion channel with bound agonist can be rationalized in terms of subunit-subunit instability, but also how a previously unknown mode of interaction may provide clues into how the receptor is tetramerically assembled in vivo.

Recent studies suggest that l-glutamate may be an efferent transmitter released from axons innervating taste buds. In this report, we determined the types of ionotropic synaptic glutamate receptors present on taste cells and that underlie this postulated efferent transmission. We also studied what effect glutamate exerts on taste bud function. We isolated mouse taste buds and taste cells, condu...

Post-translational covalent modifications of glutamate receptors remain a hot topic. Early studies have established that this family of receptors, including almost all ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptor subtypes, undergoes active phosphorylation at serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues in their intracellular domains. Recent evidence identifies several glutamate receptor subtypes t...

Activation of glutamate receptors has been shown to mediate a large number of neuronal processes such as long-term potentiation and ischemic damage. In addition to neurons and glia, glutamate receptors may occur on cerebral endothelial cells (CECs). The aim of the present study was to determine which glutamate receptors are expressed in CECs and to demonstrate the functional presence of such ch...

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate are two important amino acid neurotransmitters widely present in the nervous systems of mammals, insects, round worm, and platyhelminths, while their receptors are quite diversified across different animal phyla. However, the evolutionary mechanisms between the two conserved neurotransmitters and their diversified receptors remain elusive, and antago...

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR)s are G-protein-coupled receptors that function as modulators of synaptic function and glutamate transmission. Post-synaptically localized subtype 5 mGlu5 receptors are co-localized with adenosine A2a, dopamine, and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and regulate local protein synthesis and messenger RNA (mRNA) translation at synapses, and are thus ide...

During brain ischaemia, the run-down of transmembrane ion gradients caused by the fall of ATP levels occurring leads to a rise in extracellular glutamate and GABA concentrations. The rise of glutamate concentration triggers neuronal death. In simulated ischaemia of hippocampal slices, taken from rats humanely killed in accordance with UK animal use legislation, we have used receptors in whole-c...