This should not really be a surprise for followers of Peat and Selye, but it is always nice to see modern medicine make the connection between something considered benign, like stress and the associated NMDA "receptor", and serious diseases.
Interestingly, if stress works primarily through NMDA (and activation of the MMP-9 as shown by the study) then in theory a powerful NMDA "antagonist" should be able to mitigate some of the damage caused by stress, and maybe even prevent it altogether. Magnesium is currently the most powerful and non-specific known such NMDA antagonist.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 091614.php
"...The investigations conducted by the researchers led them to an enzyme involved in the process of protein degradation: MMP-9. It was already known that chronic stress causes a massive release of glutamate, a molecule that acts on NMDA receptors, which are essential for synaptic plasticity and thus for memory. What these researchers found now is that these receptors activated the MMP-9 enzymes which, like scissors, literally cut the nectin-3 cell adhesion proteins...Interestingly, MMP-9 expression is also involved in other pathologies, such as neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS or epilepsy. "This result opens new research avenues on the still unknown consequences of chronic stress," concluded Carmen Sandi, the BMI’s director.
Interestingly, if stress works primarily through NMDA (and activation of the MMP-9 as shown by the study) then in theory a powerful NMDA "antagonist" should be able to mitigate some of the damage caused by stress, and maybe even prevent it altogether. Magnesium is currently the most powerful and non-specific known such NMDA antagonist.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 091614.php
"...The investigations conducted by the researchers led them to an enzyme involved in the process of protein degradation: MMP-9. It was already known that chronic stress causes a massive release of glutamate, a molecule that acts on NMDA receptors, which are essential for synaptic plasticity and thus for memory. What these researchers found now is that these receptors activated the MMP-9 enzymes which, like scissors, literally cut the nectin-3 cell adhesion proteins...Interestingly, MMP-9 expression is also involved in other pathologies, such as neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS or epilepsy. "This result opens new research avenues on the still unknown consequences of chronic stress," concluded Carmen Sandi, the BMI’s director.