Sandbox Reserved 1703: Difference between revisions

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia Schizophrenia]is a chronic brain disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. The exact cause of Schizophrenia is unknown currently <ref name="Schizophrenia">\“Schizophrenia.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia</ref>. The symptoms from the disease can vary from patient to patient, but they can be broken down into positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms<ref name="Ellaithy"/>. Although antipsychotic drugs help to treat Schizophrenia, these drugs only target positive symptoms and have limited efficacy against negative and cognitive symptoms <ref name="Muguruza">PMID: 27242534</ref>. mGlu2 receptors are a therapeutic target for Schizophrenia, as mGlu2 receptors are expressed in regions associated with Schizophrenia, such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, the thalamus, and amygdala <ref name="Ellaithy">PMID: 26148747</ref>. Specifically mGlu2 agonists, LY379268 and LY40439, exhibits antipsychotic properties by increasing dopamine extracellular levels<ref name="Muguruza"/>. Increasing dopamine levels improves negative symptoms of Schizophrenia <ref name="Muguruza"/>. mGlu2 agonists also increase cortical serotonin levels, which is a property seen in many antipsychotic drugs. These clinical properties give potential for mGlu2 and its agonists as future treatments for Schizophrenia<ref name="Muguruza"/>.