GABA transporter 1 (GAT1) also known as sodium- and chloride-dependent GABA transporter 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC6A1 gene and belongs to the solute carrier 6 (SLC6) family of transporters. [5] [6] [7] It mediates gamma-aminobutyric acid's translocation from the extracellular to intracellular spaces within brain tissue and the central nervous system as a whole. [8] [9]
GAT1 is a 599 amino acid protein that consists of 12 transmembrane domains with an intracellular N-terminus and C-terminus. [10] [8]
GAT1 is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter, which removes GABA from the synaptic cleft by shuttling it to presynaptic neurons (where GABA can be recycled) and astrocytes (where GABA can be broken down). [11] [12] GABA Transporter 1 uses energy from the dissipation of a Na+ gradient, aided by the presence of a Cl− gradient, to translocate GABA across CNS neuronal membranes. The stoichiometry for GABA Transporter 1 is 2 Na+: 1 Cl−: 1 GABA. [13] The presence of a Cl−/Cl− exchange is also proposed because the Cl− transported across the membrane does not affect the net charge. [14] GABA is also the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the cerebral cortex and has the highest level of expression within it. [15] The GABA affinity (Km) of the mouse isoform of GAT1 is 8 μM. [16]
In the brain of a mature mammal, glutamate is converted to GABA by the enzyme glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) along with the addition of vitamin B6. GABA is then packed and released into the post-synaptic terminals of neurons after synthesis. GABA can also be used to form succinate, which is involved in the citric acid cycle. [17] [10] Vesicle uptake has been shown to prioritize newly synthesized GABA over preformed GABA, though the reasoning behind this mechanism is currently not completely understood.
The regulation of the modular functioning of GATs is highly dependent on a multitude of second messengers and synaptic proteins. [10]
Throughout the translocation cycle, GAT1 assumes three different conformations:
Research has shown that schizophrenia patients have GABA synthesis and expression altered, leading to the conclusion that GABA Transporter-1, which adds and removes GABA from the synaptic cleft, plays a role in the development of neurological disorders such as schizophrenia. [18] [19] GABA and its precursor glutamate have opposite functions within the nervous system. Glutamate is considered an excitatory neurotransmitter, while GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Glutamate and GABA imbalances contribute to different neurological pathologies.. [17]
Imbalance in the GABAergic neurotransmission is involved in the pathophysiology of various neurological diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's and stroke. [20]
A study on genetic absence epilepsy rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) found that poor GABA uptake by GAT1 caused an increase in tonic current of GABAA. In the two most understood forms of absence epilepsy, synaptic GABAA receptors including GAT1 play a major role in seizure development. Blocking GAT1 in non-epileptic control (NEC) rats caused tonic current to increase to a rate similar to that of GAERS of the same age. This common cellular control site shows a possible target for future seizure treatments. [21]
Glutamate and GABA have also been found to interact within the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS), paraventricular nucleus (PVN), and rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) of the brain to modulate blood pressure. [22]
SLC6A1 has been shown to interact with STX1A. [23] [24] [25]
A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse. The cell receiving the signal, or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell.
GABA is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the developmentally mature mammalian central nervous system. Its principal role is reducing neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system.
Reuptake is the reabsorption of a neurotransmitter by a neurotransmitter transporter located along the plasma membrane of an axon terminal or glial cell after it has performed its function of transmitting a neural impulse.
The GABA receptors are a class of receptors that respond to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the chief inhibitory compound in the mature vertebrate central nervous system. There are two classes of GABA receptors: GABAA and GABAB. GABAA receptors are ligand-gated ion channels ; whereas GABAB receptors are G protein-coupled receptors, also called metabotropic receptors.
GABAB receptors (GABABR) are G-protein coupled receptors for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), therefore making them metabotropic receptors, that are linked via G-proteins to potassium channels. The changing potassium concentrations hyperpolarize the cell at the end of an action potential. The reversal potential of the GABAB-mediated IPSP is −100 mV, which is much more hyperpolarized than the GABAA IPSP. GABAB receptors are found in the central nervous system and the autonomic division of the peripheral nervous system.
Glutamate receptors are synaptic and non synaptic receptors located primarily on the membranes of neuronal and glial cells. Glutamate is abundant in the human body, but particularly in the nervous system and especially prominent in the human brain where it is the body's most prominent neurotransmitter, the brain's main excitatory neurotransmitter, and also the precursor for GABA, the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter. Glutamate receptors are responsible for the glutamate-mediated postsynaptic excitation of neural cells, and are important for neural communication, memory formation, learning, and regulation.
Neuromodulation is the physiological process by which a given neuron uses one or more chemicals to regulate diverse populations of neurons. Neuromodulators typically bind to metabotropic, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to initiate a second messenger signaling cascade that induces a broad, long-lasting signal. This modulation can last for hundreds of milliseconds to several minutes. Some of the effects of neuromodulators include altering intrinsic firing activity, increasing or decreasing voltage-dependent currents, altering synaptic efficacy, increasing bursting activity and reconfiguring synaptic connectivity.
In molecular biology, the electroneutral cation-Cl family of proteins are a family of solute carrier proteins. This family includes the products of the Human genes: SLC12A1, SLC12A1, SLC12A2, SLC12A3, SLC12A4, SLC12A5, SLC12A6, SLC12A7, SLC12A8 and SLC12A9.
Neurotransmitter transporters are a class of membrane transport proteins that span the cellular membranes of neurons. Their primary function is to carry neurotransmitters across these membranes and to direct their further transport to specific intracellular locations. There are more than twenty types of neurotransmitter transporters.
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) B receptor, 2 (GABAB2) is a G-protein coupled receptor subunit encoded by the GABBR2 gene in humans.
A neurotransmitter sodium symporter (NSS) (TC# 2.A.22) is type of neurotransmitter transporter that catalyzes the uptake of a variety of neurotransmitters, amino acids, osmolytes and related nitrogenous substances by a solute:Na+ symport mechanism. The NSS family is a member of the APC superfamily. Its constituents have been found in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes.
Excitatory amino acid transporter 3 (EAAT3), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC1A1 gene.
Gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit rho-1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GABRR1 gene.
Potassium-chloride transporter member 5 is a neuron-specific chloride potassium symporter responsible for establishing the chloride ion gradient in neurons through the maintenance of low intracellular chloride concentrations. It is a critical mediator of synaptic inhibition, cellular protection against excitotoxicity and may also act as a modulator of neuroplasticity. Potassium-chloride transporter member 5 is also known by the names: KCC2 for its ionic substrates, and SLC12A5 for its genetic origin from the SLC12A5 gene in humans.
In biochemistry, the glutamate–glutamine cycle is a cyclic metabolic pathway which maintains an adequate supply of the neurotransmitter glutamate in the central nervous system. Neurons are unable to synthesize either the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, or the inhibitory GABA from glucose. Discoveries of glutamate and glutamine pools within intercellular compartments led to suggestions of the glutamate–glutamine cycle working between neurons and astrocytes. The glutamate/GABA–glutamine cycle is a metabolic pathway that describes the release of either glutamate or GABA from neurons which is then taken up into astrocytes. In return, astrocytes release glutamine to be taken up into neurons for use as a precursor to the synthesis of either glutamate or GABA.
GABA transporters are a family of neurotransmitter / sodium symporters, belonging to the solute carrier 6 (SLC6) family. They are found in various regions of the brain in different cell types, such as neurons and astrocytes.
A GABA reuptake inhibitor (GRI) is a type of drug which acts as a reuptake inhibitor for the neurotransmitter gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) by blocking the action of the gamma-Aminobutyric acid transporters (GATs). This in turn leads to increased extracellular concentrations of GABA and therefore an increase in GABAergic neurotransmission. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an amino acid that functions as the predominant inhibitory neurotransmitter within the central nervous system, playing a crucial role in modulating neuronal activity in both the brain and spinal cord. While GABA predominantly exerts inhibitory actions in the adult brain, it has an excitatory role during developmental stages. When the neuron receives the action potential, GABA is released from the pre-synaptic cell to the synaptic cleft. After the action potential transmission, GABA is detected on the dendritic side, where specific receptors collectively contribute to the inhibitory outcome by facilitating GABA transmitter uptake. Facilitated by specific enzymes, GABA binds to post-synaptic receptors, with GABAergic neurons playing a key role in system regulation. The inhibitory effects of GABA diminish when presynaptic neurons reabsorb it from the synaptic cleft for recycling by GABA transporters (GATs). The reuptake mechanism is crucial for maintaining neurotransmitter levels and synaptic functioning. Gamma-aminobutyric acid Reuptake Inhibitors (GRIs) hinder the functioning of GATs, preventing GABA reabsorption in the pre-synaptic cell. This results in increased GABA levels in the extracellular environment, leading to elevated GABA-mediated synaptic activity in the brain.
Reverse transport, or transporter reversal, is a phenomenon in which the substrates of a membrane transport protein are moved in the opposite direction to that of their typical movement by the transporter. Transporter reversal typically occurs when a membrane transport protein is phosphorylated by a particular protein kinase, which is an enzyme that adds a phosphate group to proteins.
GABA transporter 2 also known as sodium- and chloride-dependent GABA transporter 2 is one of four GABA transporters, GAT1 (SLC6A1), GAT2 (SLC6A13), GAT3 (SLC6A11) and BGT1 (SLC6A12). Note that GAT2 is different from BGT1 despite the fact that the latter transporter is sometimes referred at as (mouse) GAT-2.
In neuroscience, glutamate is the anion of glutamic acid in its role as a neurotransmitter. It is by a wide margin the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the vertebrate nervous system. It is used by every major excitatory function in the vertebrate brain, accounting in total for well over 90% of the synaptic connections in the human brain. It also serves as the primary neurotransmitter for some localized brain regions, such as cerebellum granule cells.
This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.
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