Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—emerging role of AMPA and kainate subtypes of ionotropic glutamate receptors

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) mediate the majority of excitatory neurotransmission and are implicated in various neurological disorders. In this review, we discuss the role of the two fastest iGluRs subtypes, namely, α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) and kainate receptors, in the pathogenesis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Although both AMPA and kainate receptors represent promising therapeutic targets for the treatment of these diseases, many of their antagonists show adverse side effects. Further studies of factors affecting the selective subunit expression and trafficking of AMPA and kainate receptors, and a reasonable approach to their regulation by the recently identified novel compounds remain promising directions for pharmacological research

Formation of Communicative and Pragmatic Competence in Phraseology Among Foreign Philological Students

This article deals with the analysis of the factors influencing the formation of communicative and pragmatic competence in the process of teaching foreign students of the Faculty of Philology, Department of Russian Phraseology. The authors prove that the system of training future teachers of Russian has no sections and courses aimed at the formation of communicative and pragmatic competence in Russian phraseology. The study of the assimilation of phraseological units was carried out in several stages. The first is related to the definition of the level of knowledge of the phraseological system of the Russian language. The second is the level of understanding of certain phraseological units by philology students. The third is the ability to express an evaluative attitude towards someone using phraseological units. The fourth is related to the ability to use phraseological units when evaluating something, any event, phenomena

Adrenaline induces calcium signal in astrocytes and vasoconstriction via activation of monoamine oxidase

Abstract Adrenaline or epinephrine is a hormone playing an important role in physiology. It is produced de-novo in the brain in very small amounts compared to other catecholamines, including noradrenaline. Although the effects of adrenaline on neurons have been extensively studied, much less is known about the action of this hormone on astrocytes. Here, we studied the effects of adrenaline on astrocytes in primary co-culture of neurons and astrocytes. Application of adrenaline induced calcium signal in both neurons and astrocytes, but only in neurons this effect was dependent on α- and β-receptor antagonists. The effects of adrenaline on astrocytes were less dependent on adrenoreceptors: the antagonist carvedilol had only moderate effect on the calcium signal and the agonist of adrenoreceptors methoxamine induced a signal only in small proportion of the cells. We found that adrenaline in astrocytes activates phospholipase C and subsequent release of calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum. Calcium signal in astrocytes is initiated by the metabolism of adrenaline by the monoamine oxidase (MAO), which activates reactive oxygen species production and induces lipid peroxidation. Inhibitor of MAO selegiline inhibited both adrenaline-induced calcium signal in astrocytes and the vasoconstriction that indicates an important role for monoamine oxidase in adrenaline-induced signalling and function