Skip to main content
Fig. 1 | Molecular Neurodegeneration

Fig. 1

From: Extrasynaptic NMDA receptors in acute and chronic excitotoxicity: implications for preventive treatments of ischemic stroke and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease

Fig. 1

Composition of NMDA receptors and the regulatory role of the GluN3 subunit. Functional NMDA receptors are transmembrane heterotetramers embedded in the phospholipid bilayer of glutamatergic neurons, containing two GluN1 and two GluN2 subunits. The binding of the ligand leads to the opening of the receptor cation channel in an Mg2+- and voltage-depolarization manner. The NMDAR activity and its mediated Ca2+ influx have significant impacts on synaptic transmission, neuronal plasticity, psychological/cognitive functions, and cell fates. A GluN3 (GluN3A and 3B) subunit can replace one GluN2 in the triheteromeric complex, resulting in restrained single-channel opening activities and smaller whole-cell currents compared to GluN1/GluN2 receptors. The NMDA current traces are our unpublished data, which were recorded in an Mg2+-free extracellular solution

Back to article page

Molecular Neurodegeneration

ISSN: 1750-1326