Talk:Glutamate receptor/GA1

GA Review

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I'm pleased to review such an important article. My initial impression is that the article contains a lot of useful information but needs work in some important respects. Details will follow, but here are some initial points:

The article needs to explain briefly, perhaps even in the lead, that glutamate is one of the 20 essential amino acids used to build protein, and therefore is found in large quantities in every part of the body.

I don't think the Function section is accurate. As I understand it, most neuroscientists consider AMPA receptors to be the "primary" glutamate receptors. This may be disputable, but in any case I don't think they should be portrayed as secondary to NMDA receptors.

It's very important to have an explanation of the features of the NMDA receptor that make it play a key role in neural plasticity -- i.e., the fact that the receptor depends on simultaneous pre- and postsynaptic activity. Details can be left to the subarticle, but the importance of this requires that an overview be given here.

Current ideas about the role of glutamate receptors in schizophrenia need some coverage. (Glutamate antagonists as possible antipsychotic drugs have been getting a lot of attention recently.)

Reviewer: Looie496 (talk) 18:28, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

thank you for your feedback! we will go over these comments and do research on the issues raised. Justindchien (talk) 20:09, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

thanks so much! I think you are correct about function, I've changed "function" to a general overview of glutamate receptor's role in the nervous system, and left detailed explanation for the "structure/mechanism" where it is now noted that NMDA relies on AMPA to be activated. Philipthegreat88 (talk) 19:38, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Starting real review

I didn't want to get into the middle of all the action that was going on in the article, but I'll start a real review now.

Function: This section has improved but is still short of what it ought to be. Basically there are four types of receptors commonly encountered: AMPA, NMDA, metabotropic, and kainate. Metabotropic receptors operate via a second messenger system; the others are ionotropic. The primary function of AMPA and kainate receptors is fast excitation: the receptors activate in a fraction of a millisecond, and only stay active for a few milliseconds. NMDA receptors seem to have two functions. In some situations they play a simple excitatory role, but they activate and inactivate a lot slower than AMPA receptors. In other situations their role is to control synaptic plasticity. Metabotropic receptors have a long-lasting modulatory effect. Looie496 (talk) 18:46, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Types: I don't understand either of these two sentences: "This is due to the usage of many different messengers to carry out the signal but since there is a cascade, just one activation of a G-protein can lead to multiple activations. Glutamate receptors are usually not specifically geared towards glutamate exclusively as the ligand and sometimes even requires another agonist.". The second one requires a reference at the very least. Looie496 (talk) 18:53, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Excitotoxicity / Ischemia: The article should explain that stroke is one of the most common causes of death and debility, and that much of the brain damage produced by stroke is due to excitotoxicity: brain cells that are not killed immediately by loss of blood supply often die hours or days later as a consequence of excitotoxicity. Thus, treatments for excitotoxicity are very important medically, but they must be applied quickly to have any effect. Looie496 (talk) 19:01, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ampakines: The article should include a brief overview of the use of ampakines as nootropic drugs. Looie496 (talk) 19:06, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

More to come.

Terminating review

I am going to terminate this GA review due to lack of responses. Please feel free to nominate the article again if it reaches a point where you feel it is ready. Looie496 (talk) 16:45, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]