title: Ethanol differentially inhibits homoquinolinic acid- and NMDA-induced neurotoxicity in primary cultures of cerebellar granule cells.
abstract: The potency of ethanol to inhibit N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor functions may depend on the subunit composition of the NMDA receptors. We used a NR2A-B subunit-selective NMDA receptor agonist, homoquinolinic acid (HQ), and a subunit-unselective agonist, NMDA, to induce neurotoxicity in cerebellar granule cells and examined the neuroprotective actions of ethanol, as well as NR2A- and NR2B-subunit selective antagonists, respectively. HQ was a more potent neurotoxic agent than NMDA, as measured by the MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. NR2A- and NR2B-selective NMDA receptor antagonists displayed quite similar neuroprotective potencies against the NMDA- and HQ-produced cell death, indicating that the higher potency of HQ to induce neurotoxicity cannot be simply explained by NR2A- or NR2B-subunit selectivity. As expected, ethanol (25 and 50 mM) attenuated the NMDA-induced neurotoxicity in a non-competitive manner by significantly reducing the maximum neurotoxicity produced by NMDA. By contrast, ethanol inhibited the HQ-induced neurotoxicity in a manner resembling a competitive-like interaction significantly increasing the EC50 value for HQ, without reducing the maximum neurotoxicity produced by HQ. These results suggest that HQ reveals either a novel site or a not previously observed mechanism of interaction between ethanol and NMDA receptors in rat cerebellar granule cell cultures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Drug Dependence Research, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Aleta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cebere
authors.forename: Sture
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liljequist
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D003594:Cytoplasmic Granules / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000633:toxicity*; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011805:Quinolinic Acids / Q000633:toxicity*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D011805:Quinolinic Acids; D000431:Ethanol; C040632:homoquinolinic acid; D016202:N-Methylaspartate