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Molecular and Neuronal Substrate for the Selective Attenuation of Anxiety
Karin Löw,1*Florence Crestani,1*Ruth Keist,1*Dietmar Benke,1Ina Brünig,1Jack A. Benson,1Jean-Marc Fritschy,1Thomas Rülicke,2Horst Bluethmann,3Hanns Möhler,1Uwe Rudolph1
Benzodiazepine tranquilizers are used in the treatment of anxiety
disorders. To identify the molecular and neuronal targetmediating the
anxiolytic action of benzodiazepines, we generatedand analyzed two
mouse lines in which the 2 or 3 GABAA
(-aminobutyricacid type A) receptors, respectively, were rendered
insensitiveto diazepam by a knock-in point mutation. The anxiolytic
actionof diazepam was absent in mice with the 2(H101R) point
mutationbut present in mice with the 3(H126R) point mutation. These
findingsindicate that the anxiolytic effect of benzodiazepine drugs ismediated by 2 GABAA receptors, which are largely
expressed inthe limbic system, but not by 3 GABAA
receptors, which predominatein the reticular activating system.
1 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology,
University of Zürich, and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Zürich (ETH), Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich,
Switzerland.
2 Biological Central Laboratory,
University Hospital, Sternwartstrasse 6, CH-8091 Zürich,
Switzerland.
3 Department Pharma Research Gene
Technology, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland.
*
These authors contributed equally to this report.
Present address: Department of Neurosciences,
University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA
92093,USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
rudolph{at}pharma.unizh.ch
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