Using Kalirin conditional knockout mice to distinguish its role in dopamine receptor mediated behaviors.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mice lacking Kalirin-7 (Kal7^KO), a Rho GDP/GTP exchange factor, self-administer cocaine at a higher rate than wildtype mice, and show an exaggerated locomotor response to experimenter-administered cocaine. Kal7, which localizes to post-synaptic densities at glutamatergic synapses, interacts directly with the GluN2B subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA; GluN) receptor. Consistent with these observations, Kal7 plays an essential role in NMDA receptor dependent long term potentiation and depression, and glutamatergic transmission plays a key role in the response to chronic cocaine. A number of genetic studies have implicated altered Kalirin expression in schizophrenia and other disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease.

Results

A comparison of the effects

SUBMITTER: LaRese TP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5442696 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature