Glutamate Excitotoxicity: An Insight into the Mechanism

Blatant role of glutamate in physiology and neurologic disorders has made it challenging to know its chemistry and metabolic mode of action. As glutamate is ubiquitously present in the brain, it is involved in number of essential phenomenons associated with neural functioning. Among all the processes excitotoxicity is of great significance and consequence. Glutamate excitotoxicity refers to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration caused by over activation of glutamate receptors. This overview apostrophizes in brief glutamate from neural transmission to excitotoxicity, engrossing the structure and physiology of glutamate receptors and plausible cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying excitotoxic cell death. Considerable acquaintance with this intriguing phenomenon will enhance the understanding of the neuropathologic processes and help to develop a conceptual model for modulating excitotoxicity and emerging targets for excitotoxicity research.