Noncovalent and covalent labeling of vesicular monoamine transporter with tetrabenazine and ketanserin derivatives; purification of photolabeled protein

Glutamate uptake

Brain tissue has a remarkable ability to accumulate glutamate. This ability is due to glutamate transporter proteins present in the plasma membranes of both glial cells and neurons. The transporter proteins represent the only (significant) mechanism for removal of glutamate from the extracellular fluid and their importance for the long-term maintenance of low and non-toxic concentrations of glutamate is now well documented. In addition to this simple, but essential glutamate removal role, the glutamate transporters appear to have more sophisticated functions in the modulation of neurotransmission. They may modify the time course of synaptic events, the extent and pattern of activation and desensitization of receptors outside the synaptic cleft and at neighboring synapses (intersynaptic cross-talk). Further, the glutamate transporters provide glutamate for synthesis of e.g. GABA, glutathione and protein, and for energy production. They also play roles in peripheral organs and tissues (e.g. bone, heart, intestine, kidneys, pancreas and placenta). Glutamate uptake appears to be modulated on virtually all possible levels, i.e. DNA transcription, mRNA splicing and degradation, protein synthesis and targeting, and actual amino acid transport activity and associated ion channel activities. A variety of soluble compounds (e.g. glutamate, cytokines and growth factors) influence glutamate transporter expression and activities. Neither the normal functioning of glutamatergic synapses nor the pathogenesis of major neurological diseases (e.g. cerebral ischemia, hypoglycemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy and schizophrenia) as well as non-neurological diseases (e.g. osteoporosis) can be properly understood unless more is learned about these transporter proteins. Like glutamate itself, glutamate transporters are somehow involved in almost all aspects of normal and abnormal brain activity.

The effect of polychlorinated biphenyls on the uptake of dopamine and other neurotransmitters into rat brain synaptic vesicles

Studies have shown that polychlorinated biphenyls may affect cognitive functions both in human and also in experimental animals. One of the neurochemical parameters that is changed after exposure to these compounds is a reduction in the dopamine level in the brain, although the mechanism behind this reduction is not known. We have therefore investigated whether this reduction could be caused by an effect on vesicular uptake. ortho-Chlorinated biphenyls are found to be competitive inhibitors of dopamine transport into synaptic vesicles from rat brain with K(i) concentrations as low as 4 microM. In contrast, several nonortho-chlorinated biphenyls did not inhibit vesicular uptake. The inhibition was specific for dopamine, in that the uptake of glutamate and GABA was inhibited at higher PCB concentrations under identical conditions. The vesicular Mg-ATPase proton pump was also inhibited at higher concentrations of PCBs than the dopamine transport. Uptake of methylamine gave no indication of any disruption of the vesicular proton gradient. The inhibition of dopamine vesicular uptake by PCBs was competitive. Several of the ortho-PCBs also inhibited the binding of tetrabenazine, which is known to bind to a site close to the dopamine binding site, at the vesicular transporter. The results show that inhibition of vesicular uptake may contribute to the decrease of dopamine reported in nervous tissue after exposure to PCBs under different conditions.