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Pain

The GluRA, B, C of pain

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 6, page 5 (2005)Cite this article

Most AMPA receptors in the central nervous system — those that contain the GluRB subunit together with GluRA, C or D subunits — have low permeability to Ca2+. However, receptors that lack the GluRB subunit have much higher Ca2+ permeability, and many of these receptors are found in the spinal dorsal horn. AMPA receptors in the dorsal horn are also unusual in that they are found presynaptically on the axon terminals of primary sensory afferent neurons, and activation of these receptors depolarizes the afferent neurons and thereby reduces neurotransmission from afferent fibres to second-order neurons in the spine.

Hartmann et al. set out to investigate the possible importance of Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors in the dorsal horn in nociceptive plasticity and inflammatory pain, using mutant mice that lack the GluRA, B or C subunits. Basal levels of neurotransmission and acute responses to painful stimuli were normal in these mice, but the Ca2+ permeability and ion conductance properties of the AMPA receptors in the dorsal horn were not: in GluRA−/− mice there were fewer Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors and the AMPA channel currents were reduced, whereas the opposite was true in GluRB−/− mice.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Hartmann, B. et al. The AMPA receptor subunits GluR-A and GluR-B reciprocally modulate spinal synaptic plasticity and inflammatory pain. Neuron 44, 637–650 (2004)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Collingridge, G. L. et al. Receptor trafficking and synaptic plasticity. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 5, 952–962 (2004)

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Authors
  1. Rachel Jones
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Jones, R. The GluRA, B, C of pain. Nat Rev Neurosci 6, 5 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1595

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