Publication Date:
2012-04-18
Description:
There is excellent evidence that adenosine plays a role in physiology and pathophysiology to modulate neural activity in the brain. For example, adenosine is known to act on adenosine A1 receptors to decrease neuronal firing and neurotransmitter release (1). This mechanism is of importance in limiting excessive neuronal activity and thereby, epileptic seizures (2, 3). Although the role of adenosine is rather uncontroversial, the origin of the adenosine mediating this anticonvulsant effect has been somewhat contentious. The work by Lovatt et al. (4) in PNAS not only clarifies that adenosine released from neurons is the important source, but it also...
Print ISSN:
0027-8424
Electronic ISSN:
1091-6490
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
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