Activation of alpha6-containing GABAA receptors by pentobarbital occurs through a different mechanism than activation by GABA.

Neuroscience Letters
Matthew T Fisher, Janet L Fisher

Abstract

The GABA(A) receptors are ligand-gated chloride channels which are the targets for many clinically used sedatives, including the barbiturates. The barbiturate pentobarbital acts through multiple sites on the GABA(A) receptor. At low concentrations (muM), it acts as a positive allosteric modulator while at higher concentrations it can directly activate the receptor. This agonist action is influenced by the subunit composition of the receptor, and pentobarbital is a more effective agonist than GABA only at receptors containing an alpha6 subunit. The conformational change that translates GABA binding into channel opening is known to involve a lysine residue located in an extracellular domain between the 2nd and 3rd transmembrane domains. Mutations of this residue disrupt activation of the channel by GABA and have been linked to inherited epilepsy. Pentobarbital binds to the receptor at a different agonist site than GABA, but could use a common signal transduction mechanism to gate the channel. To address this question, we compared the effect of a mutating the homologous lysine residue in the alpha1 or alpha6 subunits (K278 or K277, respectively) to methionine on direct activation of recombinant GABA(A) receptors by GABA or pentoba...Continue Reading

Citations

Jun 5, 2013·European Journal of Pharmacology·Alexey Y SokolovSergey S Panteleev
Aug 31, 2018·International Journal for Quality in Health Care : Journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care·Susrutha KotwalScott Wright

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