β-Lactam antibiotics offer neuroprotection by increasing glutamate transporter expression

Rewrite the pharmacopoeia The β-lactam antibiotics — penicillin and its semisynthetic derivatives — act by inhibiting bacterial synthetic pathways, and their success has in part been because they have little effect on their hosts. So it's a complete surprise to find that many of these β-lactams also act on the dominant excitatory neurotransmitter transporter system in the mammalian central nervous system. The mechanism of action involves activation of GLT1, the gene for glutamate transport. In animal models of ischaemic injury and motor neuron degeneration, ceftriaxone is neuroprotective, and in the animal model of the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), it increases the survival rate of mice. These studies provide a completely new drug target for scores of highly safe pharmaceuticals and may lead to new therapies for neurological disease.