ABSTRACT
For approximately twenty years ionotropic glutamate (iGlu) receptors have been divided into the three classes NMDA, AMPA (originally named quisqualate receptors) and kainate receptors, named after three agonists (McLennan and Lodge, 1979; Watkins and Evans, 1981; Watkins et al., 1990). This receptor classification was primarily based on the selective pharmacology observed for the three agonists and the action of a few antagonists. The pharmacological characterization of the NMDA receptors was developed fairly quickly, due to the relatively high degree of selectivity of NMDA itself and the early availability of a large number of selective and potent competitive NMDA receptor antagonists (see Chapter 4). For AMPA and kainate receptors there has been and, to some extent, still is a shortage of especially selective antagonists, thus these two receptor classes are often collectively named non-NMDA receptors. However, a number of compounds with selective action at AMPA receptors have been described, whereas much fewer compounds acting at kainate receptors have been published.
