It has been shown in the rat, that during the first five postnatal days, motoneurons are particularly vulnerable to excitotoxic cell death and glutamate receptors play a significant role in this time-dependent process. Various categories of glutamate blockers (MK-801, Mg, PNQX, DAP-5) have various actions on the respective receptors. Furthermore, the different response between mature and immatu...

introduction: (s)- 3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (dhpg) is an agonist for group i metabotropic glutamate receptors. dhpg-induced synaptic depression of excitatory synapses on hippocampal pyramidal neurons is well known model for synaptic plasticity studies. the aim of the present study was to examine the effects of dhpg superfusion on excitatory synapses on pyramidal and fast-spiking gabaergic cel...

The anti-Parkinsonian effect of glutamate metabotropic group 5 (mGluR5) and adenosine A(2A) receptor antagonists is believed to result from their ability to postsynaptically control the responsiveness of the indirect pathway that is hyperfunctioning in Parkinson's disease. mGluR5 and A(2A) antagonists are also neuroprotective in brain injury models involving glutamate excitotoxicity. Thus, we h...

Shank proteins assemble glutamate receptors with their intracellular signaling apparatus and cytoskeleton at the postsynaptic density. Whether Shank plays a role in spinogenesis and synaptogenesis remained unclear. Here, we report that knock-down of Shank3/prolinerich synapse-associated protein-2 by RNA interference reduces spine density in hippocampal neurons. Moreover, transgene expression of...

In a frog neuromuscular preparation of m. sartorius, glutamate had a reversible dose-dependent inhibitory effect on both spontaneous miniature endplate potentials (MEPP) and nerve stimulation-evoked endplate potentials (EPP). The effect of glutamate on MEPP and EPP is caused by the activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors, as it was eliminated by MCPG, an inhibitor of group I metabotropic...

GABA(B) receptor subtypes are based on the subunit isoforms GABA(B1a) and GABA(B1b), which associate with GABA(B2) subunits to form pharmacologically indistinguishable GABA(B(1a,2)) and GABA(B(1b,2)) receptors. Studies with mice selectively expressing GABA(B1a) or GABA(B1b) subunits revealed that GABA(B(1a,2)) receptors are more abundant than GABA(B(1b,2)) receptors at glutamatergic terminals. ...

Kainate receptors (KARs) have been implicated in a number of neurological disorders, including epilepsy. KARs are tetrameric, composed of a combination of GluK1-GluK5 subunits. We examined the contribution of GluK2 and GluK5 subunits to activation and desensitization of the heteromeric receptor. Heteromeric GluK2/K5 receptors expressed in HEK-293T cells showed markedly higher glutamate sensitiv...

Calcium imaging techniques were used to obtain a clear although indirect evidence about the distribution of functional glutamate receptors of NMDA and non-NMDA type in cultured hippocampal neurons during establishment of polarity and synaptogenesis. Glutamate receptors were expressed and were already functional as early as one day after plating. At this stage NMDA and non-NMDA receptors were di...

In the 1990s there was intense interest in ionotropic glutamate receptors as therapeutic targets for diverse neurological disorders, including epilepsy. NMDA receptors were thought to play a key role in the generation of seizures, leading to clinical studies of NMDA receptor blocking drugs in epilepsy. Disappointing results dampened enthusiasm for ionotropic glutamate receptors as a therapeutic...

Dopamine D1-like receptors, composed of D1 and D5 receptors, have been documented to modulate glutamate-mediated fast excitatory synaptic neurotransmission. Here, we report that dopamine D1 receptors modulate NMDA glutamate receptor-mediated functions through direct protein-protein interactions. Two regions in the D1 receptor carboxyl tail can directly and selectively couple to NMDA glutamate r...