NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartic acid) is an amino acid derivative acting as a specific agonist at the NMDA receptor, and therefore mimics the action of the neurotransmitter glutamate on that receptor. In contrast to glutamate, NMDA binds to and opens the above receptor only, but not other glutamate receptors. The molecular mass (abbreviated MM) of a substance, called molecular weight and abbreviated as MW, is the mass of one molecule of that substance, relative to the unified atomic mass unit u (equal to 1/12 the mass of one atom of carbon-12). ... NMDA (drawn by User:Diberri in ChemSketch) File links The following pages link to this file: NMDA Categories: Public domain images ... An amino acid residue is what is left of an amino acid once a molecule of water has been lost (an H+ from the nitrogenous side and an OH- from the carboxylic side) in the formation of a peptide bond. ... Agonists An agonist is a substance that binds to a receptor and triggers a response in the cell. ... The NMDA receptor (NMDAR) is an ionotropic receptor for glutamate (NMDA (N-methyl d-aspartate) is a name of its selective specific agonist). ... Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron and another cell. ... Glutamate is the anion of glutamic acid. ...

NMDA is a water-soluble synthetic substance that is not normally found in biological tissue. It was first synthesized in the 1960's. NMDA is an excitotoxin; this trait has applications in behavioral neuroscience research. The body of work utilizing this technique falls under the term "lesion studies." Researchers apply NMDA to specific regions of an (animal) subject's brain or spinal cord and subsequently test for the behavior of interest, such as operant behavior. If the behavior is compromised, it suggests the destroyed tissue was part of a brain region that made an important contribution to the normal expression of that behavior. Excitotoxins are usually amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate. ...

Examples of inhibitors of the NMDA receptor are APV, dextromethorphan, ketamine, phencyclidine (PCP), riluzole, and memantine. They are commonly referred to as NMDA receptor antagonists. APV chemical structure APV (also called AP5) is a selective NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antagonist that competitively inhibits the active site of NMDAR. Its chemical name is 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate. ... Dextromethorphan (DM or DXM) is an antitussive drug that is found in many over-the-counter cold and cough preparations, usually in the form of dextromethorphan hydrobromide. ... For the collaborative acoustic project, see Katamine. ... Phencyclidine (a contraction of the chemical name phenylcyclohexylpiperidine), abbreviated PCP, is a dissociative drug formerly used as an anaesthetic agent, exhibiting hallucinogenic and neurotoxic effects. ... Riluzole is a drug used to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ... Memantine is an NMDA-receptor antagonist, the first in a novel class of Alzheimers disease medications acting on the glutamatergic system. ... Antagonists In medicine and biology, a receptor antagonist is a substance that inhibits the normal physiological function of a receptor. ...

References

• Jeffrey C Watkins, David E Jane (2006). The glutamate story. British Journal of Pharmacology (2006) 147, S100–S108.

Bibliography

• Mathias-Costa Blaise, Ramanathan Sowdhamini, Metpally Raghu Prasad Rao and Nithyananda Pradhan (2004). "Evolutionary trace analysis of ionotropic glutamate receptor sequences and modeling the interactions of agonists with different NMDA receptor subunits.". J. Mol. Model. 10(5-6): 305-16.