Several antiprotozoal diarylamidines converse white inhibit ASICs with IC 50 values of 0.3 38 ¼M (Chen et al.2010 ). A recent screening of a fragment library followed by optimization led to ASIC3 inhibiting 2 aminopyridine derivatives with an IC 50 of ~3 ¼M (Wolkenberg et al.2011 ).Venom toxins acting on ASICs have been used to elucidate some of the physiological and pathological roles of ASICs (Wemmie et al.2013 ). In addition, complexes of ASIC1 with toxins were used to determine the crystal structure of ASIC1 in the likely open conformation.
In the lateral amygdala, presynaptic stimulation activated postsynaptic ASIC currents. Perfusion of glutamate receptor blockers inhibited 95% of the amplitude of the observed excitatory postsynaptic currents. The remaining 5% of the excitatory postsynaptic current amplitude were mediated by ASICs, because this current was absent in the presence of amiloride or if the ASIC1a gene was deleted (Du et al.2014 ). A similar situation with a converse black contribution of ASICs to 5% of the excitatory postsynaptic current amplitude was also found in nucleus accumbens (Kreple et al.2014 ).
High frequency stimulation induced LTP of EPSPs in the hippocampus of wild type but not ASIC1a ("/") mice (Wemmie et al.2002 ). The ASIC1a ("/") mice displayed mildly defective converse high tops spatial learning and eyeblink conditioning, consistent with decreased LTP. A recent study confirmed these initial observations by showing that pharmacological blockade of ASIC1a in hippocampal synapses impaired LTP (Quintana et al.2015 ). In a different model of ASIC1a knockout mice, however, in which ASIC1a was deleted at early embryonic stages in contrast to the classical knockout used in the study by Wemmie et al.normal LTP at CA3 CA1 synapses was observed (Wu et al.2013 ).
The study by Chiang et al. investigated LTP at various synapses of amygdala neurons and found that the extent of LTP at different synapses correlated converse black high tops with the ASIC current density in postsynaptic neurons. Cell type specific deletion of ASIC1a showed that ASIC dependent LTP is required at several amygdala synapses for fear learning. ASIC4 does not form functional channels but is known to down regulate the expression of other ASIC subunits (Donier et al.2008 ). ASIC1a expression is therefore expected to be up regulated in ASIC4 "/" mice, and it was indeed shown that ASIC4 knockout mice have an increased freezing response (Lin et al.2015 ).
In the amygdala, the absence of ASIC1a decreased the EPSC amplitude only slightly, but markedly impaired the LTP (Du et al.2014 ). Similarly, the presence or absence of ASIC1a strongly influenced glutamate receptor function in the nucleus accumbens (Kreple et al.2014 ). The mechanism of this functional interaction of ASIC1a with glutamate receptors is not understood. An earlier study had shown that during ischaemia, NMDA receptor activity leads to phosphorylation of ASIC1a by CaMKII that enhances ASIC currents and leads to ischaemic cell death (Gao et al.2005 ). There are also indications that the presence of ASICs can influence the density of dendritic spines and the glutamate receptor composition (Zha et al.2006 ; Kreple et al.2014 ).
Inhibition of ASIC1a converse trainers or of Ca 2 permeable AMPA receptors was sufficient to protect neurons of the CA1 area, illustrating the important role of ASICs in neurodegeneration in this context.In summary, pH changes occur in the CNS during neuronal and metabolic activity. The synaptic cleft is acidified upon presynaptic stimulation, leading to the activation of postsynaptic ASICs. In spite of their small contribution to the postsynaptic currents, ASICs play a critical role in synaptic signalling.Nociceptive fibres conduct signals from the periphery to the CNS that are induced by a variety of potential tissue damaging stimuli such as heat, pressure and chemicals.