Sucher N J, Awobuluyi M, Choi Y B, Lipton S A
Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Trends Pharmacol Sci. 1996 Oct;17(10):348-55.
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors belong to the family of ionotropic glutamate receptors. NMDA receptors were named after the specific glutamate-like synthetic agonist N-methyl-D-aspartate. In the past decade, an increasing number of functional sites have been discovered and used to refine the operational definition of NMDA receptors. The goal to characterize the molecular substrate underlying the heretofore strictly operationally defined NMDA receptors has come into reach following the cloning of a number of cDNAs coding for NMDA receptor subunits. However, in their review, Nikolaus Sucher and colleagues show that caution should be exercised in comparing the pharmacological properties of recombinant NMDA receptors to those of native neurones. Future work on NMDA receptors will be challenged to reconcile disparate effects obtained with recombinant versus native receptors.
N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸受体属于离子型谷氨酸受体家族。NMDA受体以特定的谷氨酸样合成激动剂N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸命名。在过去十年中，已发现越来越多的功能位点，并用于完善NMDA受体的操作性定义。随着多个编码NMDA受体亚基的cDNA的克隆，表征迄今为止严格通过操作性定义的NMDA受体的分子底物的目标已经实现。然而，Nikolaus Sucher及其同事在综述中指出，在比较重组NMDA受体与天然神经元的药理学特性时应谨慎。NMDA受体的未来研究将面临协调重组受体与天然受体所产生的不同效应的挑战。
