Many recent studies have shown that excitatory synapses can contain NMDA receptor responses in the absence of functional AMPA receptors and are therefore postsynaptically silent at resting membrane potentials. The activation of silent synapses via the rapid acquisition of AMPA receptor responses may be important in synaptic plasticity and neuronal development. Our recent immunocytochemical stud...

To elucidate mechanisms that control and execute activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate receptors (AMPA-Rs) with an electrophysiological tag were expressed in rat hippocampal neurons. Long-term potentiation (LTP) or increased activity of the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) induced delivery of tagged AMPA-Rs into syna...

Argiotoxin, a component of the spider venom from Argiope lobata, blocks AMPA receptor channels expressed in homomeric and heteromeric configuration in Xenopus oocytes. Argiotoxin acts as an open channel blocker in a voltage-dependent manner and discriminates between the functionally diverse AMPA receptors. Importantly, a transmembrane region 2 determinant for divalent cation permeability also d...

The PDZ domain-containing proteins, such as PSD-95 and GRIP, have been suggested to be involved in the targeting of glutamate receptors, a process that plays a critical role in the efficiency of synaptic transmission and plasticity. To address the molecular mechanisms underlying AMPA receptor synaptic localization, we have identified several GRIP-associated proteins (GRASPs) that bind to distin...

Synaptic plasticity at excitatory synapses in the brain is largely achieved by rapid changes in the number of synaptic alpha-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate (AMPA) receptors. Stargazin, a membrane protein that interacts with AMPA receptors, is believed to play a pivotal role in trafficking AMPA receptors to the plasma membrane and targeting them to the synapse. However, it is un...

introduction: it has been shown that administration of win55,212-2, a cannabinoid receptor agonist, into the basolateral amygdala (bla), dose-dependently increases the thermal latency to withdrawal in the tail-.ick test and decreases pain related behaviors in both phases of the formalin test. recent human and animal imaging data suggest that the nucleus accumbens (nac) is an important neural su...

Beta amyloid (Abeta), a peptide generated from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by neurons, is widely believed to underlie the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease. Recent studies indicate that this peptide can drive loss of surface AMPA and NMDA type glutamate receptors. We now show that Abeta employs signaling pathways of long-term depression (LTD) to drive endocytosis of synaptic AMPA r...

Neuronal activity controls the strength of excitatory synapses by mechanisms that include changes in the postsynaptic responses mediated by AMPA receptors. These receptors account for most fast responses at excitatory synapses of the CNS, and their activity is regulated by various signaling pathways which control the electrophysiological properties of AMPA receptors and their interaction with n...