Activation of dopamine D1 receptors blocks phencyclidine-induced neurotoxicity by enhancing N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated synaptic strength.
Journal of Neurochemistry May 2009 Gang Lei, Noelle C Anastasio, Yu Fu et al.
Early postnatal blockade of NMDA receptors by phencyclidine (PCP) causes cortical apoptosis in animals. This is associated with the development of schizophrenia-like behaviors in rats later in life. Recent studies show that the mechanism involves a loss of neurotrophic support from the phosphoinositol-3 kinase/Akt pathway, which is normally maintained by synaptic NMDA receptor activation. Here...