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Updated: Jun 17, 2025

Methods for the Discovery of Novel Compounds Modulating a Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Receptor Type A Neurotransmission
Published on: August 16, 2018
Crustaceans played a primary role in establishing gamma-aminobutyric acid as a neurotransmitter
Edward A Kravitz1, Saheli Sengupta2
1Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract:
Crustaceans played a major role in establishing that gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) functioned as an inhibitory transmitter compound. In fact, it is now widely accepted that GABA is the major inhibitory transmitter compound in all animal species where it has been examined. The story of its acceptance as a neurotransmitter, however, is more interesting than that. GABA was first isolated from mammalian brains by three laboratories in 1950. Great excitement surrounded this discovery, and many laboratories began exploring its function. This excitement peaked at two large international congresses in the United States at the end of the first decade of study, where a consensus of major figures in the field was that GABA was not a transmitter compound. How could this have happened?
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