Thiocyanate equally increases affinity for two DL-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor states.

The effects of potassium thiocyanate on the binding of DL-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA), 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX), and L-glutamate to the AMPA receptor complex were studied in rat brain membranes. Thiocyanate increased the affinity of AMPA receptors for both AMPA and L-glutamate and decreased the affinity for CNQX. Displacement of [3H]CNQX binding by AMPA revealed that the affinity for AMPA of both the high and the low affinity states of the receptor increased in the presence of thiocyanate, whereas the proportion of the two states was unchanged. In soluble fractions, which exhibit an apparently homogeneous population of the high affinity state of the receptor, the affinity for AMPA was increased by a magnitude similar to that seen for the high affinity state in the membranes. These results indicate that thiocyanate enhances AMPA binding not by converting low affinity receptors into the high affinity state but by equally increasing the affinities of the high and the low affinity states of AMPA receptors.