Alberta Innovates- Health Solutions

The body's resistance to the drugs and therapies that are intended to make it well is a perplexing problem being tackled by drug researchers at the University of Alberta. They want to know how certain drugs act in the brain and why they stop working over time.

Heritage student Glen Newell is one of the scientists hoping to solve a piece of this pharmaceutical puzzle. His research targets the GABAA receptor, one of two kinds of receptors (the other is the GABAB receptor) found in the brain. The GABAA receptor acts like a gate to the nerve cell. The key to this gate is GABA, a chemical messenger that lets nerve cells communicate with each other. When the GABA key opens the GABAA receptor gate, chloride ions pass through it, slowing the activity of the affected nerve cell. Mr. Newell's research is centered on this action. He wants to know how GABA activates the GABAA receptor. (The GABAA receptor is the target for drugs such as Valium® and Librium® that are commonly prescribed for anxiety and sleep disorders.)

The GABAA receptor is one type of several related receptors that are found in different parts of the brain. Mr. Newell is trying to identify the parts of the GABAA receptor that respond best to GABA. "This work fits into the larger complement of research projects in our lab, the major focus of which is the site of action of Valium® and Librium®," Mr. Newell explains.

Dr. Susan Dunn, Mr. Newell's principal supervisor, focuses her work on the parts of the receptor that are important for benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium® and Librium®) to interact with it. His other supervisor, Heritage researcher Dr. Alan Bateson, studies drug tolerance. He wants to know why the GABA receptor stops responding after long-term exposure to benzodiazepines.

If the research group can figure out how these widely used drugs work in the brain, their findings could lead to better treatments for panic attacks, epilepsy, depression, and possibly alcohol dependency (the GABAA receptor is thought to play a part in these conditions).

Glen Newell is a Heritage-supported student in the Department of Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. He is also one of the recent recipients of the first Neuroscience Canada Foundation Awards for Excellence in Brain Research. Mr. Newell holds a postgraduate scholarship from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for his current studies.

Dr. Alan Bateson is a Heritage Medical Scholar at the University of Alberta. He also receives funding from the Medical Research Council of Canada.

Dr. Susan Dunn is an MRC Scientist in the Department of Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Her research is supported through the Medical Research Council of Canada.