Uffe Kristiansen

Research interests: The interests of the electrophysiology group are focused on ionotropic receptors for inhibitory amino acids (GABA, glycine) with emphasis on the relation to epilepsy. The mechanism of activation of the receptors and structure-activity relationships of the ligands are studied in cultured neurons or in cell lines expressing recombinant wild type or mutant receptors using patch-clamp electrophysiology. Inhibition of neuronal activity is studied in vitro (electrophysiology in brain slices) and in vivo in the PTZ kindling model of epilepsy, where both the anticonvulsive and antiepileptogenic effects can be investigated. Using these metods, a current main theme of our research is to investigate whether selective ligands for extrasynaptic GABA_A receptors are potential antiepileptic drugs. Furthermore, we are involved in studies of the antiepileptic effect of ketogenic diet.

Recent publications:

Vestergaard, H.T., Cannillo, C., Frølund, B., Kristiansen, U.: Differences in kinetics of structurally related competitive GABA_A receptor antagonists. Neuropharmacol. 52 (2007) 873-882. 

Jensen, A.A., Begum, N., Vogensen, S.B., Knapp, K.M., Gundertofte, K., Dzyuba, S.V., Ishii, H., Nakanishi, K., Kristiansen, U., Strømgaard, K.: Probing the pharmacophore of ginkgolides as glycine receptor antagonists. J. Med. Chem. 50 (2007) 1610-1617  

Madsen, C., Jensen, A.A., Liljefors, T., Kristiansen, U., Nielsen, B., Hansen, C.P., Larsen, M., Ebert, B., Bang-Andersen, B., Krogsgaard-Larsen, P., Frølund, B.: 5-Substituted Imidazole-4-acetic Acid Analogues: Synthesis, Modeling, and Pharmacological Characterization of a Series of Novel gamma- Aminobutyric Acid(C) Receptor Agonists. J Med Chem. 50 (2007) 4147-4161