PSY 402 Lecture Notes - Autoreceptor, Astrocyte, Glutamine Synthetase
10 Feb 2014
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Document Summary
Used throughout the body: building proteins, helps with energy metabolism. Also serve as nts excitatory: glutamine can be converted to glutamate via the enzyme glutaminase. Vesicular glutamate transporter: vglut1, vglut2, and vglut3. Different parts of the brain use different vgluts: not really known why. Eaat1 and eaat2 are actually found on astrocytes. This relationship may occur because extracellular glutamate is dangerous. Cycling of glutamate and glutamine between glutamatergic neurons and astrocytes. Then the astrocytes release the glutamine so it can be picked up by neurons and converted back to glutamate. This complex system may help prevent the toxicity of extracellular glutamate: glutamate is the workhorse transmitter for excitatory signaling in the nervous system, glutamate is found throughout the brain, so there"s no specific pathways for this neurotransmitter. Involved in many behavioral and physiological functions, but perhaps the most important is synaptic plasticity. Named for the drug ampa (a selective agonist of this receptor)
