Excitotoxins

Session I Excitotoxic Amino Acids: Localization, Chemistry, Physiology, Pharmacology and Biochemistry.- Identification of excitatory amino acid pathways in the mammalian nervous system.- Electrophysiological actions of kainate and other excitatory amino acids, and the structure of their receptors.- Two types of excitatory amino acid responses in the cat caudate nucleus.- Recent advances in the pharmacology of excitatory amino acids in the mammalian central nervous system.- Alteration by kainate of energy stores and neuronal-glial metabolism of glutamate in vitro.- Receptors for excitotoxins.- Overview Lecture.- Excitotoxins: An overview.- Session II Mechanisms of Excitotoxicity.- Neuronal degeneration after intracerebral injections of excitotoxins. A histological analysis of kainic acid, ibotenic acid and quinolinic acid lesions in the rat.- Kainic acid: Insight into its receptor-mediated neurotoxic mechanisms.- The neurodegenerative properties of intracerebral quinolinic acid and its structural analog cis-2,3- piperidine dicarboxylic acid.- Studies on excitatory amino acid receptors and their interactions and regulation of pre- and postsynaptic dopaminergic mechanism in the rat telencephalon.- Electrophysiological and pharmacological studies on kainic acid-induced neuronal activation.- An analysis of bioelectrical phenomena evoked by microiontophoretically applied excitotoxic amino-acids in the feline spinal cord.- The role of seizures in kainic acid induced brain damage.- Excitatory amino acid transmitters in cerebellum and optic tectum.- Mechanisms of excitotoxins examined in organotypic cultures of rat central nervous system.- Session III Excitotoxins as Tools in Neuroscience.- Ibotenate as a tool in neurobiology. Studies on dopaminergic and cholecystokinin immunoreactive neurons after ibotenate induced lesions.- Characterization of striatal ibotenate lesions and of 6-hydroxydopamine induced nigral lesions by morphometric and densitometric approaches.- Effects of ibotenate acid stereotactically injected into striatum or hippocampus on local blood flow and glucose utilization in rats.- Synaptic rearrangements in the kainic acid model of ammon’s horn sclerosis.- On the problem of distant lesions in behavioural studies utilizing kainic acid.- Kainic acid injections into the rat neostriatum: Effects on learning and exploration.- Effects of neurotoxic excitatory amino acids on neuroendocrine regulation.- Session IV Clinical Aspects.- Adverse reactions in humans thought to be related to ingestion of elevated levels of free monosodium glutamate (MSG) (Chinese Restaurant Syndrome and Other Reactions).- Temporal lobe epilepsy, excitotoxins and the mechanism of selective neuronal loss.- Huntington’s disease: anti-neurotoxic therapeutic strategies.- Excitotoxicity in ageing and dementia.