NMDA receptors promote neuronal survival but also cause cell degeneration and neuron loss. The mechanisms underlying these opposite effects on neuronal fate are unknown. Whole-genome expression profiling revealed that NMDA receptor signaling is decoded at the genomic level through activation of two distinct, largely nonoverlapping gene-expression programs. The location of the NMDA receptor acti...

In the neuromuscular junction of the crayfish, the excitatory neurotransmitter is glutamate. There are two types of glutamate receptors, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA receptors, both of which have been demonstrated to be present in the opener muscle and deep abdominal extensor muscle. The crayfish fast extensor muscle, however, is an understudied preparation whose receptor types are ...

Molecular processes regulating the gain of NMDA receptors modulate diverse physiological and pathological responses in the CNS. Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), which neighbor NMDA receptors and which can be coactivated by synaptically released glutamate, couple to several different second messenger pathways, each of which could target NMDA receptors. In CA3 pyramidal cells we...

To identify the protein kinases regulating synaptic NMDA receptors, as well as the conditions favoring enhancement of NMDA receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) by phosphorylation, we studied the effects of kinase activation and inhibition in hippocampal neurons. Inhibition of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) prevented recovery of NMDA receptors from calcineurin-mediated...

N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors are critical for both normal brain functions and the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. We investigated the functional changes of glutamatergic receptors in the pyramidal cells and fast-spiking (FS) interneurons in the adolescent rat prefrontal cortex in MK-801 model of schizophrenia. We found that although both pyramidal cells and FS interneurons were affe...

The stimulation of extrasynaptic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors triggers cell death pathways and has been suggested to play a key role in cell degeneration and neuron loss associated with glutamate-induced excitotoxicity. In contrast, synaptic NMDA receptors promote neuronal survival. One mechanism through which extrasynaptic NMDA receptors damage neurons may involve Clca1, which encodes...

The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and its associated glycan polysialic acid play important roles in the development of the nervous system and N-methyl-D-aspartate(NMDA)receptor-dependent synaptic plasticity in the adult. Here, we investigated the influence of polysialic acid on NMDA receptor activity. We found that glutamate-elicited NMDA receptor currents in cultured hippocampal neurons...

NMDA receptors within the amygdala play an important role in the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear. Because amygdaloid injections of NMDA receptor antagonists did not block the expression of every behavioral sign of fear, a discussion arose as to whether amygdaloid NMDA receptors play different roles in different kinds of fear-conditioning tasks. To clarify the exact role of amygda...

How the billions of synapses in the adult mammalian brain are precisely specified remains one of the fundamental questions of neuroscience. Although a genetic program is likely to encode the basic neural blueprint, much evidence suggests that experience-driven activity through NMDA receptors wires up neuronal circuits by inducing a process similar to long-term potentiation. To test this notion ...

The nucleus accumbens (NAcc) may play a major role in opiate dependence, and central NMDA receptors are reported to influence opiate tolerance and dependence. Therefore, we investigated the effects of the selective mu-opioid receptor agonist [D-Ala2-N-Me-Phe4,Gly-ol5]-enkephalin (DAMGO) on membrane properties of rat NAcc neurons and on events mediated by NMDA and non-NMDA glutamate receptors, u...