Chapter 9 Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on hippocampal neurons: cell compartment-specific expression and modulatory control of channel activity

Publisher Summary The neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are differentially expressed on the somato-dendritic surface of hippocampal neurons. This chapter demonstrates that various ions and drugs play a crucial role in modulating the activity of neuronal nAChRs. Considering the diversity of the neurotransmitter receptors and their binding sites and the diversity of substances, which can act simultaneously as a primary agonist of one receptor and an allosteric modulator of a different receptor, an enormous variety of combinatorial possibilities can be achieved in the brain giving rise to very complex neuronal networks. The characterization of the diversity of many receptors …