Solubilization and Purification of a Functional Ionotropic Excitatory Amino Acid Receptor

Excitatory amino acid receptors are the predominant type of neurotransmitter receptor in the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS). They are membrane-spanning proteins that mediate the stimulatory actions of glutamate and possibly other related endogenous amino acids. Excitatory amino acid receptors are crucial for fast excitatory neurotransmission; they are believed to be involved in the neuropathology of ischemic damage; and they have been implicated in many disease states, including Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy (1 , 2 ).