Topic: ionotropic glutamate receptors

The NMDA-type family of ionotropic glutamate receptors plays critical roles in neurons and glial cells functions, such as synaptic development, plasticity, neuronal survival. Recently, de novo variants of GRIN genes -encoding GluN subunits of the NMDA receptors- have been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, defining GRIN-related disorders (GRD), a rare developmental encephalopathy with a clinical spectrum resulting from primary defects on glutamatergic neurotransmission. The genetic heterogeneity underlying GRD aetiology might be addressed using zebrafish larvae model. In this study

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are ionotropic glutamate receptors found ubiquitously in the nervous system. Mutations in genes encoding NMDARs are associated with a broad range of neurological and psychiatric disorders, but their causes at the protein level remain elusive. To study the structural changes in NMDARs caused by disease-associated mutations we employed single-molecule FRET, a technique that allows us to observe conformational changes in real-time by measuring precise distances between loci labelled with a pair of fluorophores, one of which emits light proportionate to thei

N-Methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR), a class of ionotropic glutamate receptors, play a critical role in synaptic transmission and plasticity in the central nervous system. A unique subtype of these receptors, GluN1/3A, predominantly expressed during early brain development, has been recently proposed as an excitatory glycine receptor. Our investigation aims to deliver a comprehensive characterization of the mechanism of action of recently reported selective GluN3A inhibitors by using a stable cell line expressing recombinant GluN1/3A receptors. Furthermore, we are describing an assay for ev

Pheromone signalling regulates rodents’ social and reproductive behaviours. Learning and memorizing pheromone locations is a multimodal phenomenon since pheromones can be found on naturally occurring entities of various shapes and sizes in the environment. To investigate the neural basis of this behaviour, a pheromone place preference paradigm was developed, which required mice to use their olfactory and whisker systems to detect and memorize the pheromone locations. Female mice were trained to detect and learn the location of urinary volatiles from a chamber guarded by specific orifice sizes