Biochemistry Commons^™

Heteromeric Assemblies Of Glua3 Flip And Flop Shows Differences In Their Channel Opening Kinetics, Nicholas Karl

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Prior studies of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors, including that of GluA3 AMPA receptor subunit, have shown that alternative mRNA splicing, which generates flip and flop variants with different amino acid sequences, gives rise to functional differences between the two variants. The goal of this MS thesis is to investigate the basic gating properties of the heteromeric complex channels formed from GluA2R/GluA3 AMPA receptor subunits and the different variants between the two subunits. The hypothesis to be tested is whether different GluA3 variants affect the channel gating properties when each of the variants is in a complex with the Q/R-site edited …

A Laser-Pulse Photolysis Study Of The Mechanism Of Potentiation Of The Glua2qflip Ampa Receptors By Cx546, Yu-Chuan Shen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Insufficient activity of the α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-type glutamate ion channels is involved in neurological disorders and developmental problems, such as schizophrenia, one of the most serious psychiatric diseases. Use of regulatory agents to enhance AMPA receptor activity under the circumstance has been shown therapeutically beneficial. Specifically, small-molecule compounds generally termed as potentiators or positive modulators of AMPA receptors have long been pursued as drug candidates for a potential treatment of these neurological disorders and diseases. The goal of my MS thesis work is to investigate the mechanism of potentiation on AMPA receptor by a classic potentiator known as CX546. The …

Conformational Changes In The Extracellular Domain Of Glutamate Receptors, Anu Rambhadran

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

The family of membrane protein called glutamate receptors play an important role in the central nervous system in mediating signaling between neurons. Glutamate receptors are involved in the elaborate game that nerve cells play with each other in order to control movement, memory, and learning.

Neurons achieve this communication by rapidly converting electrical signals into chemical signals and then converting them back into electrical signals. To propagate an electrical impulse, neurons in the brain launch bursts of neurotransmitter molecules like glutamate at the junction between neurons, called the synapse. Glutamate receptors are found lodged in the membranes of the post-synaptic …