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A spider toxin (JSTX) which specifically blocks the glutamate receptors in crustacea was also effective in mammalian brain synapses. Using slice preparations we found that JSTX irreversibly suppressed postsynaptic potentials in the hippocampus and the olfactory cortex, whereas the postsynaptic potentials in the superior colliculus were unaffected. The results suggest that JSTX specifically blocks glutaminergic transmission in the central nervous system as well as in crustacean neuromuscular junctions.

A thin section prepared from guinea pig hippocampus produced, in chloride-free medium, a train of seizure discharges in response to a single shock applied to the section. Generation of these discharges was ascribed to the lack of inhibitory processes in an absence of chloride ion.