Kainate receptor synaptic plasticity role

V-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (Ch. 15). Its receptors can be divided into three types AMPA/kainate, NMDA and metabotropic receptors. NMDA receptors are composed of two different types of subunit - NR1 and NR2. They play an important role in the induction of synaptic plasticity and excitotoxicity. 

The recently developed GLUK5 selective compound LY382884 (47) is the first antagonist that is selective enough for kainate receptors over AMPA receptors to be used to study the functions of native KA receptors in the presence of intact AMPA receptor-mediated transmission. The use of LY382884 has uncovered a role for kainate receptors in the regulation of short- and long-term synaptic plasticity in the mossy-fiber pathway (49,77) as well as at thalamocortical synapses (87) (Fig. 3)... 

Four main types of glutamate receptor have been identified and cloned. These are the ionotropic receptors (NMDA and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole, AMP A, and kainate types) and a group of metabotropic receptors of which eight types have been discovered. The AMP A and kainate receptors are involved in fast excitatory transmission whereas the NMDA receptors mediate slower excitatory responses and play a more complex role in mediating synaptic plasticity. 

Vissel, B. et al.. The role of RNA editing of kainate receptors in synaptic plasticity. Neuron, 29, 217,... 

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