GRIN2A and neurodegenerative disease: Early studies have shown that selective inhibition of NR2B-containing NMDARs were highly neuro-protective in models of cerebral ischemia and other neurodegenerative diseases whereas selective inhibition of the NR2A-containing NMDARs exacerbated neuronal death (Kim et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2008).