The direct action of bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) endotoxin was shown to enhance synaptic transmission and hyperpolarize the membrane potential at low doses, but block glutamatergic receptors and decrease observable spontaneous events at a high dosage. The dosage effects are LPS type specific. The hyperpolarization is not due to voltage-gated potassium channels or to activation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS). The effects are induced directly by LPS, independent of an immune response.
This work was supported by personal funds (R.L.C.) and a “Sustaining Excellence-2014” competition grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Grant #52008116 ) awarded to the University of Kentucky (VM Cassone, PI).
Data associated with this study has been deposited at osf.io/psv9m (Cooper, Robin. 2018. “LPS -NMJ-Drosophila Data Bank.” OSF. September 26).
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/robin_cooper/138/
Published in Heliyon, v. 5, issue 3, e01430, p. 1-17.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).