Studies on the cellular and molecular mechanism of neurotransmitter receptor-signaling and of neuronal and glial cell responses to stresses seem to be important to elucidate the action mechanism of centrally-acting drugs and to develop novel therapeutics against several diseases in the brain. The present review shows ourˆndings with regard to the membrane receptor-signaling mechanism including serotonin, noradrenaline, glutamate receptors, ion channels, G proteins, protein kinases and drug actions in Xenopus oocytes injected with rat brain mRNA, NG108 15 cells and brain membranes. Regarding the results of studies on the inter-and intra-cellular mechanism of neurons and glial cells against cerebral ischemia/hypoxia, we review the involvement of a transcription factor NF kB in LPS elicited inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression in rat astroglial cells. Then we describe possible involvement of: 1) ADP ribosylation/ nitrosylation of glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and 2) decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, release of caspase 3 from mitochondria and degradation of the inhibitor of caspase-activated DNase by activated caspase in NO-induced neuronal apoptosis. We observed that hypoxia results in expression of a molecular chaperon such as protein disulˆde isomerase (PDI) and HSP70 in astroglial cells. Our recentˆndings indicate that overexpression of PDI in the rat hippocampus (in vivo) and in neuroblastoma SK N MC cells (in vitro) signiˆcantly suppress the hypoxia-induced neuronal death. From physiological/pathophysiological and pharmacological aspects, we review the importance of studies on the cellular and molecular mechanism of membrane receptor-signaling and of stress-responses in the brain to identify functional roles of neuro-glial-as well as neuro-neuronal interaction in the brain.