Although GABA activates synaptic (alphabetagamma) GABA(A) receptors with high efficacy, partial agonist activation of alphabetagamma isoforms and GABA activation of the primary extrasynaptic (alphabetadelta) GABA(A) receptors are limited to low-efficacy activity, characterized by minimal desensitization and brief openings. The unusual sensitivity of alphabetadelta receptor channels to neuroster...

From an historical standpoint, the development of our understanding of basic mechanisms of the actions of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and benzodiazepines began on separate paths. Classical pharmacology revealed similarity between the actions of GABA and benzodiazepines in the central nervous system. Furthermore, pharmacological experiments with selective agonists and antagonists indicated th...

Baclofen (1) is a potent and selective agonist for bicuculline-insensitive GABA(B) receptors and is used clinically as an antispastic and muscle relaxant agent. In the search for new bioactive chemical entities that bind specifically to GABA(B) receptors, we report here the synthesis of certain baclofen homologues, namely (R,S)-5-amino-3-arylpentanoic acid hydrochlorides (R,S)-1a-h as well as (...

Chlormethiazole has sedative, hypnotic, anticonvulsant and neuroprotective properties. Using in vitro grease-gap recordings, we show that it inhibits epileptiform activity in neocortical slices superfused with Mg(2+)-free medium (IC(50) approximately 200 microM). At an antiepileptic concentration (300 microM), chlormethiazole potentiated the action of exogenously applied GABA (1 mM) but did not...

Recent studies indicate that GABAergic ligands modulate abuse-related effects of cocaine. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of a mechanistically diverse group of GABAergic ligands on the discriminative stimulus and reinforcing effects of cocaine in rats. One group of rats was trained to discriminate 5.6 mg/kg cocaine from saline in a two-lever, food-reinforced, drug discriminat...

Preclinical evidence strongly implicates GABA(B) receptors in the pathophysiology of several psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression. In the present study, we investigated the effects of the selective GABA(B) receptor agonists baclofen and SKF 97541, the GABA(B) receptor positive allosteric modulator CGP7930 and the GABA(B) receptor antagonist SCH 50911 in the modified forced swi...

Glutamate is the primary excitatory transmitter in axons innervating the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and is responsible for light-induced phase shifts of circadian rhythms generated by the SCN. By using self-innervating single neuron cultures and patch-clamp electrophysiology, we studied metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) expressed by SCN neurons. The selective agonists fo...

The uptake of 36Cl- into the fraction of membrane vesicles from rat and rabbit cortex and rabbit hippocampus was measured to investigate the selectivity of agonists and antagonists of inhibitory amino acid receptors coupled to chloride channels in the forebrain gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) produced a dose-dependent 36Cl- uptake into membrane vesicles, whereas glycine and taurine were ineffect...

We modelled the N-terminal ligand-binding domain of the rho1 GABA(C) receptor based on the Lymnaea stagnalis acetylcholine-binding protein (L-AChBP) crystal structure using comparative modelling and validated using flexible docking guided by known mutagenesis studies. A range of known rho1 GABA(C) receptor ligands comprising seven full agonists, 10 partial agonists, 43 antagonists and 12 inacti...