TY - JOUR T1 - Arachidonic acid as a possible negative feedback inhibitor of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on neurons JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 3679 LP - 3687 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-05-03679.1995 VL - 15 IS - 5 AU - S Vijayaraghavan AU - B Huang AU - EM Blumenthal AU - DK Berg Y1 - 1995/05/01 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/15/5/3679.abstract N2 - Neuronal acetylcholine receptors, being highly permeable to calcium, are likely to regulate calcium-dependent events in neurons. Arachidonic acid is a membrane-permeant second messenger that can be released from membrane phospholipids by phospholipases in a calcium-dependent manner. We show here that activation of neuronal acetylcholine receptors triggers release of 3H-arachidonic acid in a calcium-dependent manner from neurons preloaded with the fatty acid. Moreover, low concentrations of arachidonic acid reversibly inhibit the receptors and act most efficiently on receptors likely to have the highest permeability to calcium, namely receptors containing alpha 7 subunits. Low concentrations of arachidonic acid also reversibly inhibit alpha 7- containing receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes following injection of alpha 7 cRNA. The oocyte results indicate following injection of alpha 7 cRNA. The oocyte results indicate that the inhibition is a feature of the receptors rather than a consequence of neuron-specific machinery. The inhibition is not mediated by specific metabolites of arachidonic acid because the effects can be mimicked by other fatty acids; their effectiveness correlates with their content of double bonds. In contrast to arachidonic effects on calcium currents, inhibition of neuronal nicotinic receptors by the fatty acid cannot be prevented by blocking production of free radicals or by inhibiting protein kinase C. An alternative mechanism is that arachidonic acid binds directly to the receptors or perturbs the local environment in such a manner as to constrain receptor function. ER -