δ Subunit-containing GABAA receptors are preferred targets for the centrally acting analgesic flupirtine.

Background And Purpose: The Kv 7 channel activator flupirtine is a clinical analgesic characterized as 'selective neuronal potassium channel opener'. Flupirtine was found to exert comparable actions at GABAA receptors and Kv 7 channels in neurons of pain pathways, but not in hippocampus.

Experimental Approach: Expression patterns of GABAA receptors were explored in immunoblots of rat dorsal root ganglia, dorsal horns and hippocampi using antibodies for 10 different subunits.