Skip to main content
British Journal of Pharmacology logoLink to British Journal of Pharmacology
. 1990 Dec;101(4):968–970. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.1990.tb14189.x

Philanthotoxin blocks quisqualate-, AMPA- and kainate-, but not NMDA-, induced excitation of rat brainstem neurones in vivo.

M G Jones 1, N A Anis 1, D Lodge 1
PMCID: PMC1917848  PMID: 2085718

Abstract

1. The effect of electrophoretic ejection of philanthotoxin (the polyamine toxin, from the Egyptian digger wasp) was tested on responses of brainstem and spinal neurones in the pentobarbitone-anaesthetized rat to excitatory amino acids. 2. Philanthotoxin caused a dose-dependent reduction of responses to quisqualate, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-phenyl-4-isoxazolepropionate (AMPA) and kainate with little effect on those to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). 3. The time-course of this antagonist action was slow. In particular the rate of recovery was dependent on frequency of ejection of the agonist. This agonist-dependent recovery suggests that philanthotoxin has a channel blocking mode of action on mammalian central neurones.

Full text

PDF
968

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ashe J. H., Cox C. L., Adams M. E. Argiotoxin-636 blocks excitatory synaptic transmission in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Brain Res. 1989 Feb 20;480(1-2):234–241. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(89)91587-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Boden P., Bycroft B. W., Chhabra S. R., Chiplin J., Crowley P. J., Grout R. J., King T. J., McDonald E., Rafferty P., Usherwood P. N. The action of natural and synthetic isomers of quisqualic acid at a well-defined glutamatergic synapse. Brain Res. 1986 Oct 22;385(2):205–211. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(86)91065-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Eldefrawi A. T., Eldefrawi M. E., Konno K., Mansour N. A., Nakanishi K., Oltz E., Usherwood P. N. Structure and synthesis of a potent glutamate receptor antagonist in wasp venom. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jul;85(13):4910–4913. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.13.4910. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Honoré T., Davies S. N., Drejer J., Fletcher E. J., Jacobsen P., Lodge D., Nielsen F. E. Quinoxalinediones: potent competitive non-NMDA glutamate receptor antagonists. Science. 1988 Aug 5;241(4866):701–703. doi: 10.1126/science.2899909. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Jackson H., Usherwood P. N. Spider toxins as tools for dissecting elements of excitatory amino acid transmission. Trends Neurosci. 1988 Jun;11(6):278–283. doi: 10.1016/0166-2236(88)90112-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Ragsdale D., Gant D. B., Anis N. A., Eldefrawi A. T., Eldefrawi M. E., Konno K., Miledi R. Inhibition of rat brain glutamate receptors by philanthotoxin. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1989 Oct;251(1):156–163. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Saito M., Sahara Y., Miwa A., Shimazaki K., Nakajima T., Kawai N. Effects of a spider toxin (JSTX) on hippocampal CA1 neurons in vitro. Brain Res. 1989 Feb 27;481(1):16–24. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(89)90480-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Pharmacology are provided here courtesy of The British Pharmacological Society

RESOURCES