[Verse 1] Glutamate knocks on the AMPA door, Sodium rushes in, begging for more, Nicotinic swings wide for acetylcholine's call, Chloride floods through GABA-A, hushing it all, No messenger boy, no detour, no delay, Just ion meets gate in the quickest ballet, A thousandth of a second and the current's already spun, This is ionotropic — the sprinter, the gun. [Chorus] Ionotropic, snap of a switch, Milliseconds flash without one hitch, Metabotropic, a slow-building brew, Seconds to minutes cascading through, Same little key, a thousand locks, The receptor decides how the message talks, Fast gate, slow cascade, the signal's alive, One chemical, many ways to arrive. [Verse 2] Now ease off the gas, meet the patient crew, G-protein coupled, with time to accrue, mGluRs murmur, GABA-B hums low, Muscarinic keeps a torpid, unhurried flow — torpid, like syrup that won't be rushed, Dopamine knocks, and cAMP starts to gush, IP3 ripples, calcium climbs the walls, No instant flash, just a tide that enthralls. [Chorus] Ionotropic, snap of a switch, Milliseconds flash without one hitch, Metabotropic, a slow-building brew, Seconds to minutes cascading through, Same little key, a thousand locks, The receptor decides how the message talks, Fast gate, slow cascade, the signal's alive, One chemical, many ways to arrive. [Verse 3] Meet NMDA, the receptor with a twist, A magnesium cork plugs the hole like a fist, Glutamate alone can rattle, but the door stays jammed, It needs voltage too, a jolt that can't be shammed, Both conditions met, the cork finally springs, Calcium pours in and memory sings, A coincidence detector, timing is key, Two signals collide before the current runs free. [Bridge] Same little messenger, two different coats, Acetylcholine sends opposite notes, At the muscle it's nicotinic — contract, obey, At the heart it's muscarinic — slow, drift away, One chemical, two meanings, the lock writes the law, Receptor decides what the signal is for. [Chorus] Ionotropic, snap of a switch, Milliseconds flash without one hitch, Metabotropic, a slow-building brew, Seconds to minutes cascading through, Same little key, a thousand locks, The receptor decides how the message talks, Fast gate, slow cascade, the signal's alive, One chemical, many ways to arrive. [Verse 4] Second messengers spread like wildfire through the cell, PKA, PKC, ringing receptor's bell, Phosphorylate the channels, change the threshold's height, Desensitize the fast ones, dim the city light, The slow path lingers, rewrites the cellular code, While the fast path resets, ready to reload. [Outro] Fast gate, slow cascade, the message rides on, Sprinter and dreamer, both carry the song, One key, a thousand doors left to explore, The receptor writes what the chemical's for.
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