Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common partial epilepsy syndrome seen in adult humans. The hippocampus is a key structure in the evolution of temporal lobe seizures. The axons of the dentate granule cells, the mossy fibres, constitute a major hippocampal excitatory input. Inhibitory phenomena at mossy fibre synapses may therefore prevent seizure propagation through the hippocampus. One such ...

CXCR4, a receptor for the chemokine CXCL12 (stromal-cell derived factor-1α), is a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), expressed in the immune and CNS and integrally involved in various neurological disorders. The GABAB receptor is also a GPCR that mediates metabotropic action of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and is located on neurons and immune cells as well. Using diverse approaches, we ...

The recently discovered GABAB receptor-positive allosteric modulators enhanced the potency and efficacy of GABAB receptor agonists in in vitro experiments. These GABAB modulators also attenuated reward and anxiety in behavioral experiments without causing the untoward side effects associated with GABAB receptor activation by agonist administration and hence exhibited potential therapeutic utili...

Introduction: In female rats sensitivity to antinociceptive treatment varies during estrous cycle stages. The role of GABA through GABAB receptor in nociception has been established. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of intercerebroventicular injection of GABAB receptor agonist (baclofen) and GABAB antagonist (CGP35348) on pain sensitivity during different stages of estr...

In the CNS, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) affects neuronal activity through both the ligand-gated GABAA receptor channel and the G protein-coupled GABAB receptor. In the mature nervous system, both receptor subtypes decrease neural excitability, whereas in most neurons during development, the GABAA receptor increases neural excitability and raises cytosolic Ca2+ levels. We used Ca2+ digital im...

Cortical inhibition plays an important role in the processing of sensory information, and the enlargement of receptive fields by the in vivo application of GABAB receptor antagonists indicates that GABAB receptors mediate some of this cortical inhibition. Although there is evidence of postsynaptic GABAB receptors on cortical neurons, there is no evidence of GABAB receptors on thalamocortical te...

In the mature nervous system excitatory neurotransmission mediated by glutamate is balanced by the inhibitory actions of GABA. However, during early development, GABA acting at the ligand-gated GABAA Cl- channel also exerts excitatory actions. This raises a question as to whether GABA can exert inhibitory activity during early development, possibly by a mechanism that involves activation of the...

Julia H. White Fiona H. Marshall 7TMReceptor Systems, Molecular Pharmacology Dept, GlaxoWellcome Research and Development, Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK SG1 2NY. Recent advances in GABA receptor biology have resulted in elucidation of the molecular structure of a GABAB protein with similarity to metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), GABAB(1) (Ref. 1), and the subs...

Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is an RNA-binding protein important for the control of translation and synaptic function. The mutation or silencing of FMRP causes Fragile X syndrome (FXS), which leads to intellectual disability and social impairment. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter of the mammalian central nervous system, and its metabotropic GABA...

Activation of the metabotropic g-aminobutyric acidB (GABAB) receptor increases K conductance and decreases Ca channel activity in neuronal membranes. Studies with a number of new GABAB receptor agonists and antagonists reveal that in addition to their muscle relaxant effects, agonists display analgesic activity and reduce the craving for cocaine. With regard to GABAB receptor antagonists, precl...