NT Metabolism - Drewes Flashcards
4 criteria for a substance to count as a neurotransmitter?
1 - It has to be present
2 - It has to be released
3 - It has to activate receptors
4 - Should be able to artificially use it to stimulate/inhibit
What leads to tetanus, on a Neurotransmitter level?
Tetanus cleaves the SNARE proteins involved in vesicle fusion in GABA neurons. Without this inhibition, the muscles in the body contract uncontrollably
The black widow spider venom, iatrotoxin does what exactly?
Allows vesicles to fuse and release contents WITHOUT the Ca trigger. SO its real poisonous and can cause paralysis and stuff
What bacteria cause tetanus and how?
Clostridium botulinum and colstridium tetani produce toxins that are Zinc proteases. These proteases cleave through snare proteins to keep viscles from fusing and releaseing NT’s.
NMDA receptors need what to be activated?
What comes into the cell when the channel opens?
Glutamate and glycine together are required to activate them.
It allows both Na and Ca into the cell when it opens
What is excitotoxicity?
Excitatory neurotransmitters such as glutamate are released from synapses on depolarization after the arrival of an action potential.
unrestrained glutamate release at synapses, initiates a cascade of events that leads to death of the postsynaptic cell
catastrophic depolarization occurs during hypoxia or hypoglycemia, which compromise energy production and therefore the ability of the cell to maintain a membrane potential. Overstimulation of neurons during seizure has the same effect on glutamate release
What is unique about Endocannabinoids as neurotransmitters?
They are actually retrograde NT’s because they are going from the postsynaptic to the presynaptic
What is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain?
GABA
What kind of antidote exists for nerve gas that is an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor?
You can use antagonists of the ACh receptors, like curare for nicotinic receptors or atropine for muscarinic receptors
