Increasing evidence suggests that glutamate neurotoxicity is partly mediated by reactive oxygen species, formed as a consequence of several processes, including arachidonic acid metabolism and nitric oxide production. Here we used an oxidation-sensitive indicator, dihydrorhodamine 123, in combination with confocal microscopy, to examine the hypothesis that electron transport by neuronal mitochondria may be an important source of glutamate-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS). Exposure to NMDA, but not kainate, ionomycin, or elevated potassium stimulated oxygen radical production in cultured murine cortical neurons, demonstrated by oxidation of nonfluorescent dihydrorhodamine 123 to fluorescent rhodamine 123. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy studies using 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) as a radical-trapping agent, also showed production of ROS by cortical neurons after NMDA but not kainate exposure. NMDA-induced ROS production depended on extracellular Ca2+, and was not affected by inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase or arachidonic acid metabolism. The increased production of ROS was blocked by inhibitors of mitochondrial electron transport, rotenone or antimycin, and mimicked by the electron transport uncoupler, carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone. These data support the possibility that NMDA receptor-mediated, Ca(2+)-dependent uncoupling of neuronal mitochondrial electron transport may contribute to the oxidative stress initiated by glutamate exposure.

Apoptosis of mouse neocortical neurons induced by serum deprivation or by staurosporine was associated with an early enhancement of delayed rectifier (IK) current and loss of total intracellular K+. This IK augmentation was not seen in neurons undergoing excitotoxic necrosis or in older neurons resistant to staurosporine-induced apoptosis. Attenuating outward K+ current with tetraethylammonium or elevated extracellular K+, but not blockers of Ca2+, Cl-, or other K+ channels, reduced apoptosis, even if associated increases in intracellular Ca2+ concentration were prevented. Furthermore, exposure to the K+ ionophore valinomycin or the K+-channel opener cromakalim induced apoptosis. Enhanced K+ efflux may mediate certain forms of neuronal apoptosis.

Abuse of the dissociative anesthetic ketamine can lead to a syndrome indistinguishable from schizophrenia. In animals, repetitive exposure to this N-methyl-d-aspartate-receptor antagonist induces the dysfunction of a subset of cortical fast-spiking inhibitory interneurons, with loss of expression of parvalbumin and the gamma-aminobutyric acid-producing enzyme GAD67. We show here that exposure of mice to ketamine induced a persistent increase in brain superoxide due to activation in neurons of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase. Decreasing superoxide production prevented the effects of ketamine on inhibitory interneurons in the prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that NADPH oxidase may represent a novel target for the treatment of ketamine-induced psychosis.

Biochemistry. In the article ''Identification by mass spectrometry of the phosphorylated residue responsible for activation of the catalytic domain of myosin I heavy chain kinase, a member of the PAK͞STE20 family'' by Joanna Szczepanowska, Xiaolong Zhang, Christopher J. Herring, Jun Qin, Edward D. Korn, and Hanna Brzeska, which appeared in number 16, August 5, 1997, of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (94,(8503)(8504)(8505)(8506)(8507)(8508), the authors wish to note that in Fig. 3, the ions of m͞z 1345.3 and 1247.1 were incorrectly identified as b 13 and b 13 ⌬ , respectively, produced by cleavage of the peptide AS(Pi)VVGTTYW-MAPEVVK between E and V (Fig. 3 Inset). In fact, these ions are b 12 and b 12 ⌬ , produced by cleavage of the peptide between P and E. This correction has no effect on the conclusion that the phosphorylated residue is serine. Also, in Table 2, reference numbers 22-24 should be 21-23 (the reference in the legend is cited correctly) and the MIHCK sequence is from residue 624 to residue 638.Cell Biology. In the article ''Subtraction hybridization identifies a transformation progression-associated gene PEG-3 with sequence homology to a growth arrest and DNA damageinducible gene'' by Zao