Fig. 2.

EAR16 and EAR18 peptides inhibit NMDA-evoked inward currents in hippocampal neurons. a, b The inhibitory effect on NMDA-evoked currents during consecutive exposures to either 10, 100 and 500 µM of EAR18 (a) and EAR16 (b). The areas of the NMDA-evoked inward currents were normalized to that measured prior to the addition of EAR18 (or EAR16) (−1: maximal inward current; 0: no current). Significant different compared to the control group. #p < 0.0001, +p<0.001, @p < 0.02, ^p < 0.01, $p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparison post-test; n (number of cells) for each pulse were for Control (n = 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 5, 4); for EAR18: 10 µM (n = 7), 100 µM (n = 8); 500 µM (n = 5); for EAR16: 10 µM (n = 10), 100 µM (n = 6, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5) and 500 µM (n = 7, 11, 11, 5, 5, 6, 5). c, d Show NMDA-evoked current traces before, in the presence of EAR16 (or ER18) and following washout. The arrows indicate that upon the simultaneous removal of NMDA + EAR, there is a transient increase in the NMDA-evoked inward current (see text for “Discussion” section). e Dose–response, the data was fitted to Y = Bottom + (Top − Bottom)/(1 + 10^((LogIC50-x)*HillSlope)). When the entire current was considered: Bottom = 0 no current, top = −1 (normalized maximal inward current), the IC50 s were 176 and 241 µM for EAR18 and EAR16, respectively