The NMDAR glutamate receptor subtype mediates various vital physiological neuronal functions. However, its excessive activation contributes to neuronal damage in a large variety of acute and chronic neurological disorders. NMDAR antagonists thus represent promising therapeutic tools that can counteract NMDARs' overactivation. Channel blockers are of special interest since they are use-dependent...

We have administered antagonists acting competitively or noncompetitively at the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor after a short period of incomplete ischaemia and evaluated selective neuronal loss in the CA1 region of the rat hippocampus. The competitive antagonists D-(-)-2-amino-7-phosphonoheptanoate (2APH); 100 or 330 mg/kg; 3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)propyl-1-phosphonate (CPP); 3.3 or 10 mg/kg;...

Ketamine, phencyclidine and MK801 are uncompetitive NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonists which are used widely to model certain features of schizophrenia in rats. Systemic administration of NMDAR antagonists, in addition to provoking an increase in c-Fos expression, leads to important neurochemical and electrophysiological changes within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Since the mPFC is consi...

Early life neuronal exposure to environmental toxicants has been suggested to be an important etiology of neurodegenerative disease development. Perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS), one of the major perfluoroalkyl compounds, is widely distributed environmental contaminants. We have reported that PFHxS induces neuronal apoptosis via ERK-mediated pathway. Imperatorin is a furanocoumarin found in var...

Excitatory amino acids and their receptors have been postulated to be involved in mediating ischemic neuronal damage. We occluded the bilateral carotid arteries for 5 min in gerbils to examine the effect of FR115427, a novel N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist, on ischemic neuronal damage. FR115427 prevented hippocampal CA1 cell damage at a dose of 10 mg/kg and reduced spontaneous locomotor ...

Hypersynchronicity of neuronal brain circuits is a feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Mouse models of AD expressing mutated forms of the amyloid-β precursor protein (APP), a central protein involved in AD pathology, show cortical hypersynchronicity. We studied hippocampal circuitry in APP23 transgenic mice using telemetric electroencephalography (EEG), at the age of onset of memory deficits. ...

BACKGROUND Pregabalin as a new anticonvulsant has been used in different pain treatments. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the role of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) ligands in antinociceptive effect of pregabalin in mice using tail flick. MATERIALS AND METHODS NMDA (15 and 30 mg/kg) as an agonist or MK801 (0.02 and 0.05 mg/kg) as an antagonist were injected intraperitoneall...

Glutamate plays an important role in the control of neuronal migration in the developing cerebral cortex. The present study describes changes in the structure and function of the cerebral cortex after transient blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors during the late period of neuronal migration. Elvax slices containing the NMDA antagonist MK801 were placed over the somatosensory corte...

Glutamate microinjected into the vagal sensory area in the medulla produces cardiorespiratory responses mimicking oxygen chemoreflexes in fish. Here we directly investigate whether these reflexes are dependent on the ionotropic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor. Fish were equipped with opercular, branchial and snout cannulae for measurements of cardiorespiratory parameters and drug...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether glycine is effective in correcting the age-related change in the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor complex. Autoradiographic analysis of [3H]MK801 and NMDA-displaceable [3H]glutamate binding was performed with 0, 10, 30 and 100 microM glycine on brain tissue from 3-, 10-, and 24-30-month-old C57B1 mice. Glycine, even at 10 microM, enhanced b...