Abstract
Introduction:Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. It has many naturally-occurring derivatives obtained by modifying the carboxylic moiety in γ- junction.Indeed, L-theanine (or γ-glutamyl-N-ethyl) is the major amino acid found in the green tea.In addition, dipeptides such as γ-L,L-Glutamyl-Alanine (γ- LGA) or γ-L-Glutamyl-Glycine (γ-LGG), are synthetize during glutathione turnover by the γ-glutamyl-transpeptidases.As these compounds share a lot of structural similarities with glutamate, we have evaluated their action on glutamate receptors. We have focused the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor subtype: