sigh

I find myself waking up with a heavy heart this morning, mostly because I know that today I need to memorize almost the entire PSYCO 478 (Psychopharmacology) course in a single day. You see, the class I'm taking right now, PSYCI 511 (Introduction to Psychiatry) features two lectures by the fabled Dr. S. Kar, the main reason I dropped NEURO 410. I went to that class on the first day, observed his very first lecture on the nature of K⁺ channels, distinctly remember myself muttering, "Eff this..." and getting up early to leave. I find myself face-to-face with this professor again, but now he's rattling on about neurotransmitter and neuromodulator profiles, going through each NT in about 15 minutes or less. Mind you, in PSYCO 478, an NT system would take us at least a week and a half to finish, so he's zipping through this stuff pretty fast.

Just to give you an indication of what this guy wants me to memorize, let me introduce you to one of the seven circles of hell:



Try memorizing ~50 pharmacological agents with names like hexahydrosiladifenidol (Ach M3 selective antagonist) or heaven forbid the three metabotropic glutamate receptor identifiers: 2,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (Class I mGluR), 2-(2,3-dicarboxycycloepropyl)-glycine (Class II mGluR) and 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate (Class III mGluR). Their short forms don't even match their names (DHPG, DCG-IV, and L-AP4)!!

You can understand why I find myself dragging my feet to Second Cup today to study this garbage. I have to deal with memorizing synthesis/release, distribution, receptor profile and functions of 8 major NTs, followed by a few neuromodulators to boot. My class is starting to freak out - some girl e-mailed the whole class requesting that we form a study group to go over the material because there's so much and she doesn't know where to start. I'm just glad I've done this kind of thing before in PSYCO 478, but it's still causing my brain to hurt.

***

Anyways, I posted a great joke I made up in class the other day on Facebook, but I think it probably eludes the majority of individuals (you'd have to be 1. male 2. heavily into neuroscience to get it). That being said I'll explain it:

Question: What do Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and the majority of metabotropic glutamate receptors have in common?

The first component: Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are characters from the timeless classic series G.I. Joe.
The second component: G-proteins are specific second-messenger signalling pathways that are often used to jump-start a physiological reaction (according to Dr. Kar, 40% of clinical drugs use G-protein pathways). That being said, there are three types of G-proteins: G_q/G₁₁, G_s, and G_i/G_o. The majority of mGluRs operate via G_i/G_o.

Thus:

Answer: They are all G_i/G_os!!!

Brilliant huh? I know, I am so proud of myself; my claim to fame.