Organismal Biological Physiology Commons^™

Characterization Of Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors And Their Positive Allosteric Modulators, Doris Clark Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are ligand-gated ion channels that are necessary in memory and cognition. They are pentameric and consist of α and β subunits. They are most commonly heteromeric but, can sometimes be homomeric. nAChRs are activated by many ligands including nicotine (exogenous) and acetylcholine (endogenous).nAChRs are located on hippocampal interneurons. The interneurons, although sparse, control the synchronous firing of the pyramidal cells. However, the hippocampal interneuron structure and function is quite diverse and not fully characterized. Therefore, we sought to quantify nAChR subunit mRNA levels using real-time PCR of CA1 hippocampal interneurons.Surprisingly we found that the α3 …