Kainate receptors and cognitive enhancement

Abstract

The kainate (KA) receptor family is one of the three ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) families, consisting of five subunits. The receptors were first discovered by the excitotoxic and epileptogenic actions upon kainate injection. The KA receptors are located on the nerve terminals as well as on the dendrites of neurons and induce ionotropic and metabotropic signalling pathways in areas like the hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum and the cerebral cortex. Kainate receptors play a role in short-term and long-term synaptic facilitation and plasticity and are thereby a potential target for enhancing cognition. However, most of the actions of KA receptors are bidirectional and are highly dependent on experimental conditions, making them difficult subjects to study and target. This review describes some of the properties of these receptors and attempts to summarize the findings on cognitive modulation by KA receptors reported till now.