Biochemistry, Gamma Aminobutyric Acid

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) acts as the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS). Although researchers discovered GABA in biological tissues in 1910, its neurological role in mammals remained unknown until the late 1950s.[1] Cortical neuron studies completed in the late 1960s concluded that GABA was unequivocally inhibitory. Many more follow-up studies were completed to elucidate the mechanisms of GABA-induced inhibition and its role in GABA-related pathologies, including anxiety disorders, alcohol use disorder, epilepsy, spastic diseases, and idiopathic hypersomnia.[2] The action of most anxiolytic drugs, antiepileptic drugs, and anesthetic drugs serve as GABA agonists.[3][4] Some GABA antagonists are useful as antidotes against GABA agonist overdoses.[5]