SIR: Recently, Klockgether and Turski proposed that antagonists of excitatory amino acids may be beneficial in the treatment of Parkinson's disease 1. This suggestion , previously put torward by others 2-4, is supported by recent findings of animal experiments as weil as by clinical data. On the basis of these findings, a somewhat different conclusion can be drawn about the role of gluta-mate i...

The psychopharmacology of agonists and antagonists of excitatory amino acids is in its infancy relative to the decades of intensive research associated with drugs acting on monoamine neurotransmitter systems. The prototype drug in this class, phencyclidine, and its derivative, ketamine, block the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subclass of glutamate receptors with competing with glutamate and witho...

Excitatory amino acids (EAA) such as glutamate and aspartate are major transmitters of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and EAA mechanisms appear to play a role in learning and memory. Anatomical and biochemical evidence suggests that there is both pre- and postsynaptic disruption of EAA pathways in Alzheimer's disease. Dysfunction of EAA pathways could play a role in the clinical manifesta...

It is supposed that Glu, and OXY are synthesized and stored in the same structure and parts of the brain. Both Glu and its receptors are located in different neurosecretory nuclei of the hypothalamus which are associated with neuroendocrine function. It have been demonstrated the presence of Glu in nucleus Paraventricularis (PVN), nucleus Ventro-Medianus (VMN), nucleus arcuatus, nucleus Supraop...

A recent study describing two epileptic patients with brain cysts has suggested that elevated concentrations of excitatory amino acids in cysts may play a role in induction and maintenance of epileptogenesis [Epilepsy Res. 28 (1997) 245]. Here, we report that only in 3 out of 22 patients with brain cysts undergoing brain surgery cyst fluids displayed highly increased amounts of the excitatory a...