Kainic acid is a natural marine acid present in some algae. It is a specific agonist for the kainate receptor used as an ionotrophic glutamate receptor which mimicks the effect of glutamate. It is used in experiments to distinguish a receptor from the other ionotropic receptors for glutamate such as NMDA and AMPA, a.k.a. quisqualate.

Occurrence

Kainic acid is a potent central nervous system stimulant, and has been developed as the prototype neuroexcitatory amino acid for the induction of seizures in experimental animals, at a typical dose of 10-30 mg/kg in mice. Kainic acid is neuroexcitotoxic and epileptogenic, acting through specific kainate receptors.

Because of the supply shortage in 2000, the price of kainic acid has risen significantly. It is available from Milestone Pharmtech, Cayman Chemical, Tocris ….

There are two kinds of kainic acid: one comes from natural source; the other was synthesized. The synthetic kainic acid is totally glutamate free and has much better solubility in water than the kainic acid from natural source. In the above providers, Milestone Pharmtech can provide the highest pure synthetic kainic acid (>99%) at a much lower price than others. It will give much better experimental results for neuroscientist and save them spending at the same time.

Applications

• antiworming agent
• neuroscience research
• neurodegenerative agent
• modeling of epilepsy
• modeling of Alzheimer's disease

See also

• Domoic acid

References