Astrocytic GABA Transporters: Pharmacological Properties and Targets for Antiepileptic Drugs

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterCommunication

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Inactivation of GABA-mediated neurotransmission is achieved by high-affinity transporters located at both GABAergic neurons and the surrounding astrocytes. Early studies of the pharmacological properties of neuronal and glial GABA transporters suggested that different types of transporters might be expressed in the two cell types, and such a scenario was confirmed by the cloning of four distinctly different GABA transporters from a number of different species. These GABA-transport entities have been extensively characterized using a large number of GABA analogues of restricted conformation, and several of these compounds have been shown to exhibit pronounced anticonvulsant activity in a variety of animal seizure models. As proof of concept of the validity of this drug development approach, one GABA-transport inhibitor, tiagabine, has been developed as a clinically active antiepileptic drug. This review provides a detailed account of efforts to design new subtype-selective GABA-transport inhibitors aiming at identifying novel antiepileptic drug candidates.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGlial Amino Acid Transporters
Number of pages14
Volume16
PublisherSpringer
Publication date2017
Pages283-296
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
SeriesAdvances in Neurobiology
ISSN2190-5215

Keywords

  • Journal Article

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