Journal Club Flashcards
Errors in the metabolism of what substrate is most commonly linked to NTDs?
Folate metabolism
What enzyme provides the carbon units for folate metabolism?
Glycine decarboxylase
What can mutations in GLDC lead to?
Non-ketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) and are linked to NTDs
What does administration of formate to GLDC mutant mice do?
Provides an alternative source of carbon units.
Normalises the folate profile
What can drugs targeting GABA signalling be used for?
Anti-anxiety, anti-convulsants, analgesics, anaesthetics and muscle relaxants
What binding sites are present on the GABAa receptor?
2 orthosteric GABA binding sites
1 allosteric/modulatory site (benzodiazepine binding site)
What does muscimol do?
Binds orthosteric site on GABAa receptor
Agonist
What is Flunitrazepam an example of?
Benzodiazepine
What triggers Ca2+ entry intro presynaptic boutons?
Electrical stimulus/action potential in presynaptic cell
Triggers activation/opening of presynaptic voltage gated Ca2+ channels
Describe the relationship between synaptic transmission and Ca2+ entry
Non-linear
Small reduction in Ca2+ entry leads to a big reduction in neurotransmitter release
What is the Inhibitory Avoidance procedure?
- Rats given a foot shock in an inhibitory avoidance apparatus
- 48h later, rats were placed back in the shock box and in a new novel box
- Latencies measured
- Greater latency in the shock box indicate memory of training
In electrophysiology experiments, why do we measure slope as opposed to amplitude?
Slope less likely to be disrupted by a population spike
How are 3 dimensional data sets often presented?
Colour/heat maps
How does Arterial Spin Labelling (ASL) work?
Modifies the magnetism of arterial blood
Magnetically tagged blood used as endogenous tracer
How does BOLD fMRI work?
Assess changes in oxygenation of the blood
Detects differences in magnetic properties of oxyhaemaglobin and deoxyhaemaglobin
