There are many cells in the abdominal ganglion which show a fast, Cl(-)-dependent hyperpolarizing response to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This response is characterized by an initial rapid increase in membrane conductance followed by an exponential decay to the original value despite a sustained application of GABA. The decay of the response was found to be largely due to the desensitizatio...

The ionotropic ?-aminobutyric acid (iGABA) receptor is commonly considered as a fast inhibitory channel and an important insecticide target. Since 1990, RDL, LCCH3, GRD have been successively isolated found to be potential subunits of the insect iGABA receptor. More recently, one orphan gene named 8916 was another subunit according its amino sequence. However, little information about has repor...

BACKGROUND Functional GABA(B) receptor is believed to require hetero-dimerization between GABA(B1) (GB1) and GABA(B2) (GB2) subunits. The GB1 extracellular domain is required for ligand binding, and the GB2 trans-membrane domain is responsible for coupling to G proteins. Atypical GABA(B) receptor responses observed in GB2-deficient mice suggested that GB1 may have activity in the absence of GB2...

We studied the pharmacology of the GABA receptors on bipolar cell terminals in the retinal slice preparation. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings were made from the somas of bipolar cells and GABA was puffed near their terminals, after synaptic transmission was blocked. GABA puffs evoked a large chloride current that was reduced by picrotoxin, but in many cells this current was insensitive to blo...

In certain Aplysia neurons, glutamate, GABA, and acetylcholine (ACh) all elicit desensitizing Cl-dependent responses. This fact and the finding that the glutamate and GABA responses "cross-desensitize" led to the suggestion (Swann and Carpenter, 1975; King and Carpenter, 1987) that the responses to these transmitters were mediated by the same receptor-channel complex. This hypothesis is incompa...

We examined the effects of the neurosteroid pregnenolone sulfate (PS) on GABA(A) receptor-mediated synaptic currents and currents elicited by rapid applications of GABA onto nucleated outside-out patches in cultured postnatal rat hippocampal neurons. At 10 microm, PS significantly depressed peak responses and accelerated the decay of evoked inhibitory synaptic currents. In nucleated outside-out...

Acute administration of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-B receptor agonists decreases nicotine, cocaine, ethanol, and heroin self-administration and also decreases food-maintained responding and suppresses locomotor activity at high doses. GABA(B) receptor-positive modulators may represent potentially improved therapeutic compounds because of their fewer side effects than receptor agonists. The ...

The amygdala is intimately involved in emotional behavior, and its role in the generation of anxiety and conditioned fear is well known. Benzodiazepines, which are commonly used for the relief of anxiety, are thought to act by enhancing the action of the inhibitory transmitter GABA. We have examined the properties of GABA-mediated inhibition in the amygdala. Whole-cell recordings were made from...

The gamma-aminobutyric acid-A (GABA(A)) receptor complex is allosterically modulated by a variety of substances, some of clinical importance. Barbiturates and neurosteroids augment GABA-currents and also directly gate the channel. A variety of gamma-butyrolactone analogues also modulate GABA-induced currents, with some potentiating and others inhibiting. Because several gamma-thiobutyrolactone ...

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) plays important roles in the central nervous system, acting as a neurotransmitter on both ionotropic ligand-gated Cl(-)-channels, and metabotropic G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). These two types of receptors called GABA(A) (and C) and GABA(B) are the targets of major therapeutic drugs such as the anxiolytic benzodiazepines, and antispastic drug baclofen (lior...