Nicotinic cholinergic subtypes

The Road to Discovery of Neuronal Nicotinic Cholinergic Receptor Subtypes... 

Fiedler JL, Epstein CJ, Rapoport SI, Caviedes R, Caviedes P (1994) Regional alteration of cholinergic function in central neurons of trisomy 16 mouse fetuses, an animal model of human trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). Brain Res 658 27-32 Flores CM, Rogers SW, Pabreza LA, Wolfe BB, Kellar KJ (1992) A subtype of nicotinic cholinergic receptor in rat brain is composed of alpha 4 and beta 2 subunits and is up-regulated by chronic nicotine treatment. Mol Pharmacol 41 31-37 Freedman R, Hall M, Adler LE, Leonard S (1995) Evidence in postmortem brain tissue for decreased numbers of hippocampal nicotinic receptors in schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry 38 22-33... 

Acetyl choline is the natural neurotransmitter for the cholinergic receptor. Two distinct receptor subtypes have been characterized based on their binding affinity for either nicotine (189) and (190) or muscarine (191). 

Cholinergic receptors Receptors for acetylcholine are classified into muscarinic (muscarine is a selective agonist) and nicotinic (nicotine is a selective agonist). There are five muscarinic (mj to m5) and two nicotinic (neuronal, or ganglionic, and skeletal muscular) subtypes. 

FIGURE 11-3 Structure of compounds important to the classification of receptor subtypes at cholinergic synapses. Compounds are subdivided as nicotinic (N) and muscarinic (Ad). The compounds interacting with nicotinic receptors are subdivided further according to whether they are neuromuscular (N,) or ganglionic (N2). Compounds with muscarinic subtype selectivity (M M2, M3, M4) are also noted. 

Thus, cholinergic receptor classification can be considered in terms of three stages of development. Initially, Dale [2] distinguished nicotinic and muscarinic receptor subtypes with crude alkaloids. Then, chemical synthesis and structure-activity relationships clearly revealed that nicotinic and muscarinic receptors were heterogeneous, but chemical selectivity could not come close to uncovering the true diversity of receptor subtypes. Lastly, analysis of subtypes came from molecular cloning, making possible the classification of receptors on the basis of primary structure (Fig. 11-2). 

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