Anecdotal reports have surfaced concerning misuse of the HIV antiretroviral medication efavirenz ((4S)-6-chloro-4-(2-cyclopropylethynyl)-4-(trifluoromethyl)-2,4-dihydro-1H-3,1-benzoxazin-2-one) by HIV patients and non-infected teens who crush the pills and smoke the powder for its psychoactive effects. Molecular profiling of the receptor pharmacology of efavirenz pinpointed interactions with multiple established sites of action for other known drugs of abuse including catecholamine and indolamine transporters, and GABA A and 5-HT 2A receptors. In rodents, interaction with the 5-HT 2A receptor, a primary site of action of lysergic acid diethylamine (LSD), appears to dominate efavirenz's behavioral profile. Both LSD and efavirenz reduce ambulation in a novel open-field environment. Efavirenz occasions drug-lever responding in rats discriminating LSD from saline, and this effect is abolished by selective blockade of the 5-HT 2A receptor. Similar to LSD, efavirenz induces head-twitch responses in wild-type, but not in 5-HT 2A -knockout, mice. Despite having GABA A -potentiating effects (like benzodiazepines and barbiturates), and interactions with dopamine transporter, serotonin transporter, and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (like cocaine and methamphetamine), efavirenz fails to maintain responding in rats that selfadminister cocaine, and it fails to produce a conditioned place preference. Although its molecular pharmacology is multifarious, efavirenz's prevailing behavioral effect in rodents is consistent with LSD-like activity mediated via the 5-HT 2A receptor. This finding correlates, in part, with the subjective experiences in humans who abuse efavirenz and with specific dose-dependent adverse neuropsychiatric events, such as hallucinations and night terrors, reported by HIV patients taking it as a medication.

Receptor endocytosis is an important mechanism for regulating the synaptic efficacy of neurotransmitters. There is strong evidence that GABA A receptor endocytosis is clathrin-dependent; however, this process is not well understood. Here we demonstrate that in HEK 293 cells, endocytosis of GABA A receptors composed of either ␣ 1 ␤ 2 ␥ 2 L or ␣ 1 ␤ 2 subunits is blocked by the dominant negative dynamin construct K44A. Furthermore, we identify a dileucine AP2 adaptin-binding motif within the receptor ␤ 2 subunit that is critical for endocytosis. Internalization of GABA A receptors lacking this motif is dramatically inhibited, and the receptors appear to accumulate on the cell surface. Patch clamp analysis of receptors lacking the dileucine motif show that there is an increase in the peak amplitude of GABA-gated chloride currents compared with wild-type receptors. Additionally, GABA-gated chloride currents in HEK 293 cells expressing wild-type receptors are increased by introduction of a peptide corresponding to the dileucine motif region of the receptor ␤ 2 subunit but not by a control peptide containing alanine substitutions for the dileucine motif. In mouse brain cerebral cortical neurons, the dileucine motif peptide increases GABA-gated chloride currents of native GABA A receptors. This is the first report to our knowledge that an AP2 adaptin dileucine recognition motif is critical for the endocytosis of ligand-gated ion channels belonging to this superfamily.The GABA A receptor is a ligand-gated chloride channel that, upon activation by GABA 1 (␥-aminobutyric acid), mediates increases in chloride conductance resulting in membrane hyperpolarization and neuronal inhibition (1). The role of these receptors in hyperexcitability states, such as epilepsy and anxiety, is widely recognized. Importantly, GABA A receptors mediate the effects of benzodiazepines and barbiturates, two frequently prescribed classes of therapeutic agents. The GABA A receptor is a pentameric receptor composed of multiple subunits, each containing four membrane-spanning regions (M1-M4) with a large intracellular loop between M3 and M4. A number of subunits exist (␣ 1Ϫ6 , ␤ 1Ϫ3 , ␥ 1Ϫ3 , ␦, , ⑀, ), and receptors composed of ␣ 1 ␤ 2 ␥ 2 L subunits are believed to represent the predominant GABA A receptor subtype in the brain (1).Receptor endocytosis is known to regulate the cell surface expression of neurotransmitter receptors, and such regulation is an important mechanism for controlling the synaptic efficacy of neurotransmitters (2). Although GABA A receptors undergo endocytosis, the mechanism is not well understood. Several lines of evidence indicate that GABA A receptor endocytosis may be clathrin/dynamin-dependent. These include the presence of GABA A receptors in clathrin-coated vesicles isolated from brain (3), the colocalization of the receptor with transferrin receptors (4), and the colocalization and co-immunoprecipitation of hippocampal GABA A receptors with the clathrin adaptor complex AP2 adaptin (5). Additionally, peptides that dis...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSECognitive deficits in patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury and stroke often involve alterations in cholinergic signalling. Currently available therapeutic drugs provide only symptomatic relief. Therefore, novel therapeutic strategies are needed to retard and/or arrest the progressive loss of memory. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHScopolamine-induced memory impairment provides a rapid and reversible phenotypic screening paradigm for cognition enhancement drug discovery. Male C57BL/6J mice given scopolamine (1 mg·kg −1 ) were used to evaluate the ability of LS-1-137, a novel sigma (σ1) receptor-selective agonist, to improve the cognitive deficits associated with muscarinic antagonist administration. KEY RESULTSLS-1-137 is a high-affinity (Ki = 3.2 nM) σ1 receptor agonist that is 80-fold selective for σ1, compared with σ2 receptors. LS-1-137 binds with low affinity at D2-like (D2, D3 and D4) dopamine and muscarinic receptors. LS-1-137 was found to partially reverse the learning deficits associated with scopolamine administration using a water maze test and an active avoidance task. LS-1-137 treatment was also found to trigger the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor from rat astrocytes. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONSThe σ1 receptor-selective compound LS-1-137 may represent a novel candidate cognitive enhancer for the treatment of muscarinic receptor-dependent cognitive deficits. AbbreviationsAD, Alzheimer's disease; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; BiP, binding immunoglobulin protein; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; PPCC, methyl(1R,2S/1S,2R)-2-[4-hydroxy-4-phenylpiperidin-1-yl)methyl]-1-(4-methylphenyl)cyclopro-panecarboxylate; QNB, quinuclidinyl benzylate IntroductionImpairment in learning and memory is seen in (i) aged populations, (ii) patients with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease, (iii) stroke patients and (iv) patients with traumatic brain injury (Scarpini et al., 2003;Tarawneh and Galvin, 2010;Ruscher et al., 2011). Although the causes of cognitive impairments vary, previous studies have suggested that alteration in cholinergic neurotransmission may play an important role in the disruption of learning and memory (Francis et al., 1999;Craig et al., 2011;Dumas and Newhouse, 2011). According to the cholinergic hypothesis, age-dependent cognitive decline is primarily related to impairment in cholinergic neurotransmission (Bartus et al., 1982;Coyle et al., 1983;Kirk et al., 1994). Administration of the competitive cholinergic muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine causes cognitive dysfunctions similar to those observed in normal aging and AD (Ebert and Kirch, 1998;Bejar et al., 1999;Klinkenberg and Blokland, 2010). A scopolamine-dependent model of cognitive deficits has been used to screen for potential cognition-enhancing drugs (Flood and Cherkin, 1986;Ennaceur and Meliani, 1992;Antonini et al., 2009;Klinkenberg and Blokland, 2010). Since the sigma σ1 receptor is known to potently modulate cho...

We have previously shown that extracellular protons inhibit recombinant and native GABA(A) receptors. In this report, we studied the site(s) and mechanism by which protons modulate the GABA(A) receptor. Whole cell GABA-activated currents were recorded from human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells expressing recombinant alpha1beta2gamma2 GABA(A) receptors. Protons competitively inhibited the response to GABA and bicuculline. In contrast, change in pH did not influence direct gating of the channel by pentobarbital, and it did not influence spontaneous channel openings in alpha1(L264T)beta2gamma2 receptors, suggesting pH does not modulate channel activity by affecting the channel gating process directly. To test the hypothesis that protons modulate GABA(A) receptors at the ligand binding site, we systemically mutated N-terminal residues known to be involved in GABA binding and assessed effects of pH on these mutant receptors. Site-specific mutation of beta2 Y205 to F or alpha1 F64 to A, both of which are known to influence GABA binding, significantly reduced pH sensitivity of the GABA response. These mutations did not affect Zn(2+) sensitivity, suggesting that H(+) and Zn(2+) do not share a common site of action. Additional experiments further tested this possibility. Treatment with the histidine-modifying reagent diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) reduced Zn(2+)-mediated inhibition of GABA(A) receptors but had no effect on proton-induced inhibition of GABA currents. In addition, mutation of residues known to be involved in Zn(2+) modulation had no effect on pH modulation of GABA(A) receptors. Our results support the hypothesis that protons inhibit GABA(A) receptor function by direct or allosteric interaction with the GABA binding site. In addition, the sites of action of H(+) and Zn(2+) in GABA(A) receptors are distinct.