Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.4.37 (CNPase)
 539 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The involvement of voltage-gated calcium channels in the survival of immature CNS neurons was studied in aggregating brain cell cultures by examining cell type-specific effects of various channel blockers. Nifedipine (10 microM), a specific blocker of L-type calcium channels, caused a pronounced and irreversible decrease of glutamic acid decarboxylase activity, whereas the activity of choline acetyltransferase was significantly less affected. Flunarizine (1-10 microM, a relatively unspecific ion channel blocker) elicited similar effects, that were attenuated by NMDA. The glia-specific marker enzymes, glutamine synthetase and 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase, were affected only after treatment with high concentrations of nifedipine (50 microM) or NiCl2 (100 microM, shown to block T-type calcium channels). Nifedipine (50 microM), NiCl2 (100 microM), and flunarizine (5 microM) also caused a significant increase in the soluble nucleosome concentration, indicating increased apoptotic cell death. This effect was prevented by cycloheximide (1 microM). Furthermore, the combined treatment with calcicludine (10 nM, blocking L-type calcium channels) and funnel-web spider toxin-3.3 (100 nM, blocking T-type channels) also caused a significant increase in free nucleosomes as well as a decrease in glutamic acid decarboxylase activity. In contrast, cell viability was not affected by peptide blockers specific for N-, P-, and/or Q-type calcium channels. Highly differentiated cultures showed diminished susceptibility to nifedipine and flunarizine. The present data suggest that the survival of immature neurons, and particularly that of immature GABAergic neurons, requires the sustained entry of Ca2+ through voltage-gated calcium channels.
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PMID:High sensitivity of immature GABAergic neurons to blockers of voltage-gated calcium channels. 1036 97

Elevated extracellular glutamate in the synaptic cleft causes overactivation of glutamate receptors and kills neurons by an excitotoxic mechanism. Recent studies have shown that glutamate can also lead to toxic injury of white matter oligodendrocytes in myelin sheaths and consequently to axon demyelination. The present study was performed using the rodent model of multiple sclerosis known as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The aim of the study was to test the effects of the glutamatergic receptor antagonists amantadine and memantine (antagonists of NMDA receptors), LY 367384 (an antagonist of mGluR1), and MPEP (an mGluR5 antagonist) on the development of neurological symptoms in immunized animals, morphological changes in cerebral myelin, and expression of mRNA of the principal myelin proteins PLP, MBP, MOG, MAG, and CNPase. Pharmacological inhibition of NMDA receptors by amantadine and memantine was found to suppress neurological symptoms in EAE rats, whereas antagonists of the group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs G I) did not function positively. In the symptomatic phase of the disease we observed destruction of myelin sheaths via electron microscopy and decreased levels of mRNA for all of the principal myelin proteins. The results reveal that glutamate receptor antagonists have a positive effect on the expression of mRNA MBP and glycoproteins MAG and MOG but not on myelin ultrastructure.
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PMID:The influence of glutamatergic receptor antagonists on biochemical and ultrastructural changes in myelin membranes of rats subjected to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. 2678 66