NBQX suppresses inhibitory glycine currents in retinal ganglion cells

The quinoxaline NBQX (2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulfamoylbenzo (F) quinoxaline) is a potent non-NMDA receptor antagonist, which appears to be relatively free of antagonistic action at the glycine binding site of the NMDA receptor. However, we report here that at 50 microM, NBQX significantly attenuated the inhibitory currents induced by the exogenous application of 100 microM glycine as observed using whole-cell recordings from ganglion cells in a slice preparation of the tiger salamander retina. In contrast, NBQX had no effect on GABA-mediated inhibition. This observation suggests that care should be taken when attributing the action of NBQX solely to its antagonism of non-NMDA glutamate receptors, particularly when higher concentrations are used.