Substantia nigra gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors in Huntington's disease.
The specific binding of [3H]gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to nigral GABA receptors has been studied in postmortem brains from controls and patients with Huntington's disease (HD). A specific increase in the number of high-affinity binding sites for [3H]GABA was observed in HD patients, analogous to changes observed in rat substantia nigra [3H]GABA binding after striatal kainic acid (KA) lesion. The results provide further support for the striatal KA lesion in the rat as an animal model of HD. The implications of the results for the proposed therapeutic potential of GABA agonists in HD are discussed.
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism*; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000378:metabolism*; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism*
D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid