molecules of the month

Drug Hunter Reviewer Commentary. With over two decades of experience in neuroscience drug discovery, Drug Hunter reviewer Jake Schwarz says "mGluR2/3 agonists have been explored for schizophrenia, and agonists/PAMS could be tuned to give antagonist/NAM activity, but depression is a new indication. One of the more interesting depression approaches now is the use of ketamine, an NMDA antagonist. This MoA elicits hallucinations like PCP, but dose is likely critical for the depression indication. It could be that dampening ionotropic or metabotropic glutamate receptors has a beneficial effect in patients with depression." A mechanism with the antidepressant efficacy of ketamine but without the associated adverse effects? Ketamine is a molecule with a long history, starting with its initial development as an…