Research progress on excitotoxicity of glutamate and its modulators / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Excitotoxicity mainly refers to the toxic effect of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate.Long-term activation of glutamate receptors will cause a series of neurotoxicity, eventually leading to the loss of neuronal function and cell death.Triggering excitotoxicity may involve changes in glutamate and calcium metabolism, dysfunction of glutamate transporter, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor(NMDAR)and mitochondria, and production of ROS.Therefore, we here review the occurrence of these mechanisms and introduce the pathological mechanism of glutamate excitotoxicity in Alzheimer's disease(AD), Parkinson's disease(PD), depression and epilepsy.Finally, this review briefly describes the regulatory effects of broad-spectrum glutamic satellite modulators, marine compounds and Chinese herbal medicines on the glutamatergic system.