How does kainic acid produce brain lesions?
Kainic acid is a direct agonist of the glutamic kainate receptors and large doses of concentrated solutions produce immediate neuronal death by overstimulating neurons to death. Such damage and death of neurons is referred to as an excitotoxic lesion.
Can excitation cause seizures?
Enhanced excitation of the brain can lead to a seizure threshold being crossed leading to a period of the intense neural activity causing a seizure. Many anti-epileptic drugs work by targeting ion channels to reduce overall excitation thus reducing the risk of developing a seizure.
What do epileptics smell before a seizure?
Seizures beginning in the temporal lobes may remain there, or they may spread to other areas of the brain. Depending on if and where the seizure spreads, the patient may experience the sensation of: A peculiar smell (such as burning rubber) Strong emotions (such as fear)
What do kainate receptors do?
Kainate receptors are ionotropic glutamate receptors that mediate fast excitatory neurotransmission and are localized to the presynaptic and postsynaptic sides of excitatory synapses.
What is status epilepticus?
If you have epilepsy, you may have seizures repeatedly. A seizure that lasts longer than 5 minutes, or having more than 1 seizure within a 5 minutes period, without returning to a normal level of consciousness between episodes is called status epilepticus.
What happens to the brain during seizures?
During a seizure, there is a sudden intense burst of electricity that disrupts how the brain usually works. This activity can happen on one small part of the brain and last for just a couple of seconds, or it can spread right across the brain and keep going for many minutes.
Can TLE go away?
What is the outlook? Two out of 3 people with temporal lobe epilepsy achieve good seizure control with seizure medication. Seizures may also go away in some children with TLE. A good outcome is most often seen in people with normal MRI scans.
Where are kainate receptors found?
Kainate receptor subunits are widely distributed throughout the brain. GluK1-3 subunits are found in somewhat higher levels in the CA3 region of the hippocampus, the striatum and the inner layers of the cortex.
What kind of drug is kainic acid used for?
Kainic acid is a potent central nervous system excitant that is used in epilepsy research to induce seizures in experimental animals, at a typical dose of 10–30 mg/kg in mice. In addition to inducing seizures, kainic acid is excitotoxic and epileptogenic.
How does kainic acid work to induce seizures?
Pharmacological activity. Kainic acid induces seizures via activation of kainate receptors containing the GluK2 subunit and also through activation of AMPA receptors, for which it serves as a partial agonist. Supply shortages beginning in 2000 have caused the cost of kainic acid to rise significantly.
How is kainic acid used as a neurodegenerative model?
Kainic acid (KA), an analog of excitotoxic glutamate, can elicit selective neuronal death in the brain of rodents, of which the pathological changes partially mimic neurodegeneration in the CNS. Thus, KA-induced neurodegeneration in rodents has been used as a model for exploring the pathogenesis of excitotoxicity in neurodegenerative disorders. 2.
What is the molecular formula of kainic acid?
The molecular structure of kainic acid (2-carboxy-4-isopropenylpyrrolidin-3-ylacetic acid, KA). The molecular formula of KA are C 10 H 15 NO 4 and the molar mass of KA is 213.23 g/mol. Two broad categories of glutamate receptors (GluRs), that is, iGluRs and metabotropic GluRs (mGluRs), differ with reference to their functions.
