Chinese Herbal Medicine Interventions in Neurological Disorder Therapeutics by Regulating Glutamate Signaling.

Chinese Herbal Medicine Interventions in Neurological Disorder Therapeutics by Regulating Glutamate Signaling. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2019 Nov 01;: Authors: Liu Y, Wang S, Kan J, Zhang J, Zhou L, Huang Y, Zhang Y Abstract Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, and its signaling is critical for excitatory synaptic transmission. The well-established glutamate system involves glutamate synthesis, presynaptic glutamate release, glutamate actions on the ionotropic glutamate receptors (NMDA, AMPA, and kainate receptors) and metabotropic glutamate receptors, and glutamate uptake by glutamate transporters. When the glutamate system becomes dysfunctional, it contributes to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, such as, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, epilepsy, and ischemic stroke. In this review, based on regulating glutamate signaling, we summarize the effects and underlying mechanisms of natural constituents from Chinese herbal medicines in neurological disorders. Natural constituents from Chinese herbal medicine can prevent the glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity via suppressing presynaptic glutamate release, decreasing ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors expression in the excitatory synapse, and promoting astroglial glutamate transporter expression to increase glutamate clearance from the synaptic cleft. However, some natural constituen...
Source: Current Neuropharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Curr Neuropharmacol Source Type: research