Topic: extrasynaptic membranes

We have developed a protocol to isolate synaptic and extrasynaptic membranes from post-mortem human cortex. This allowed us to characterize the distribution of the major brain NMDAR subunits, GluN2B, GluN2A, GluN1 and GluN3A in controls and AD samples. We used specific antibodies and western blots to analyse the level and phosphorylation of the NMDAR subunits. We have found that GluN2B, GluN2A, GluN1 are predominantly at synaptic membranes, while GluN3A is more abundant at extrasynaptic membranes. When the synaptic distribution was analysed in AD fractions, GluN2B and GluN2A showed lower level