Ketamine, but not phencyclidine, selectively modulates cerebellar GABA(A) receptors containing alpha6 and delta subunits.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience May 14, 2008 Wulf Hevers, Stephen H Hadley, Hartmut Lüddens et al.
Ketamine, but not the related drug phencyclidine (PCP), enhances the activity of specific GABA(A) receptor subtypes (alpha6beta2delta and alpha6beta3delta) at anesthetic concentrations, directly activating them at higher concentrations. This effect was observed in oocyte expression systems and in cerebellar granule neurons from mice, and was absent in neurons from mice lacking the alpha6 or delta subunits. The findings suggest that ketamine's greater central nervous system depressant effects, compared to PCP, may arise from its selective modulation of these GABA(A) receptors, which are abundant in the cerebellum.