Presynaptic and postsynaptic glutamatergic function in Alzheimer's disease

Cowburn, Richard, Hardy, John, Roberts, Peter and Briggs, Roger (1988) Presynaptic and postsynaptic glutamatergic function in Alzheimer's disease. Neuroscience Letters, 86 (1), 109-113. (doi:10.1016/0304-3940(88)90192-9).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Sodium dependent d-aspartate and Ca²⁺ Cl^- independent l-glutamate binding assays were used to assess the integrity of glutamate uptake sites and postsynaptic NMDA receptor levels in control and Alzheimer's disease temporal cortex. The number of glutamate uptake sites was significantly and substantially reduced in accordance with previous findings. However, NMDA receptor levels were unchanged. This finding suggests that glutamatergic presynaptic elements are severely reduced in Alzheimer's disease, whilst postsynaptic elements remain intact.

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Published date: 21 March 1988

Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust (P.R. and R.B.) and by the Research Corporation Trust (J.H.). R.C. is an MRC scholar. We thank Angela Symons, Prof. R.O. Weller and Drs. B.S. Wilkins, M. Simpson, P. Slater, D.C. Davies and S.W. Davies for valuable contributions to the work.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Glutamate terminal, N-Methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor, Temporal cortex