1. Eduardo E. Rivera
Ms. Comenencia
Neurosteroid Regulation of GABAA Receptor Trafficking
Ms. Comenencia, a graduate student form UPR of Cayey, gave us a seminar on her
current research in the field of neurobiology. Comenencia talk to us about the
modulation of GABAa receptor trafficking. This receptor can be helpful in various
brain diseases like depression, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and many others.
However, the sensitivity of the neurosteroid with the GABA receptor may explain
their importance in pregnancy, puberty, depression, and stress-ovarian cycle
because the GABA receptor was altered.GABA receptor is known to inhibit
neurotransmitter release, which leads to many functions cognition, sedation and
analgesia. By this saying, Gaba stimulates the GABAa receptor making it a
stimulatory transmitter. A new target of GABAa receptor was in neuroactive
steroids, which was the focus in their lab. By using a technique called whole cell
patch clamp electrophysiology they studied the ion channels functions. They found
that if there is an increase level of the receptor in the membrane you could reduce
side effects of autism and epilepsy.