Resident Calmodulin Primes NMDA Receptors for Ca2+-Dependent Inactivation

N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are glutamate- and glycine-gated channels that flux Na+ and Ca2+ into postsynaptic neurons during synaptic transmission. The resulting intracellular Ca2+ transient is essential to physiological and pathological processes related to synaptic development, plasticity, and apoptosis. It also engages calmodulin (CaM) to reduce subsequent NMDA receptor activity in a process known as Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI). Here, we used whole-cell electrophysiology to measure CDI and computational modeling to dissect the sequence of events that underlies it.

http://ift.tt/2viV2ST