Potential Drug Targets
In the treatment of epilepsy, drugs targeting both GABA transporters and the GABA metabolizing enzyme GABA-transaminase (vigabatrin) have been marketed, providing proof of principle for the neurotransmitter cycling systems as pharmacological targets. However, with regard to glutamate transport and metabolism no such drugs have been developed This is because glutamatergic synapses are abundant and the neurotransmitter glutamate is an important metabolite in metabolism, making interference capable of adverse effects. So far, most of the drug development directed at the glutamatergic system seems to have been focused on ionotropic glutamate receptors as pharmacological targets, although G-protein coupled receptors have been attracting increased attention over the years.
Read more about this topic: Glutamate-glutamine Cycle
Famous quotes containing the words potential and/or drug:
“There is a potential 4-6 percentage point net gain for the President [George Bush] by replacing Dan Quayle on the ticket with someone of neutral stature.”
—Mary Matalin, U.S. Republican political advisor, author, and James Carville b. 1946, U.S. Democratic political advisor, author. All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President, p. 205, Random House (1994)
“He’d been numb a long time, years. All his nights down Ninsei, his nights with Linda, numb in bed and numb at the cold sweating center of every drug deal. But now he’d found this warm thing, this chip of murder. Meat, some part of him said. It’s the meat talking, ignore it.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)